Tourism employment in the second quarter of 2023 has reached 2,864,776 employed people, which represents an increase of 5.4% compared to the same period in 2022 and 6.3% more than in 2019, according to data published today by Turespaña.
Between April and June 2023, tourism-related activities registered 146,678 more employees than in the same quarter of the previous year, which represents one out of every four jobs created during that period in the Spanish economy as a whole (589,000). In other words, 24.9 % of the new jobs have come from tourism-related activities.
Also, the number of active workers in the tourism sector in the second quarter of the year was close to three million (3,130,026), 6% more than in the same period of the previous year.
The unemployment rate stood at 8.5% in the second quarter, half a point higher than in 2022 due to the increase in active workers, but three points lower than in 2019 (11.1%) and than the national economy, which stood at 11.6%.
"The good data from the Labour Force Survey show that the tourism sector is one of the main economic engines of our country. Spain continues to create jobs linked to tourism activities and does so in an increasingly robust way and always under the motto of quality, stability and excellence", said the acting Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Héctor Gómez.
Gómez stressed that "the labour market around tourism has shown formidable resilience and performance despite the uncertainty generated by inflation and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These data show that Spain is not only a power in attracting tourists, but also a power when it comes to generating wealth and stability for the citizens who work in this sector", he added.
Increase in all activities and of wage earners
In this quarter, the main tourism activities have experienced growth. Hotels and restaurants increased by 7.1 %, due to positive developments in both food and beverage services (7.1 %) and accommodation services (7.2 %). In travel agencies the variation was 0.4%, while in passenger transport it was 10.8%.
The main growth in the quarter was among employees (8.1 %) with 2,381,684. Employees showed increases in all tourism activities. In passenger transport (17.3 %), in hotels and restaurants (8.7 %) and in "other tourism activities" (3.5 %). Within "other tourism activities", employees in travel agencies increased by 6.2 %.
The number of employees in the tourism sector with permanent contracts (80.4%) increased by 18.1% this year, the eighth consecutive increase. Furthermore, employees with temporary contracts recorded an decrease of 19.9%. In this regard, the temporary employment rate in the tourism sector was 19.6%, seven points lower than in the same period in 2022: 26.4%.
The number of self-employed individuals has decreased by 6% compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 482,388. Declines have been recorded in "other tourism activities" (-22 %) and in passenger transport (-8.6 %), while in hotels and restaurants they have increased by half a percentage point (0.5 %).
Employment by autonomous community
The autonomous communities that have registered the highest number of employed people from April to June are Catalonia (487,314), Madrid (440,033), Valencia (279,779) and the Canary Islands (271,204).
In this period, the number of employed people grew in all the Autonomous Communities, except in Comunidad Valenciana, Castilla y León, Aragón and Cantabria.
Héctor Gómez stresses "that the growth in employment is uniform in the communities as a whole, which shows that the Government's policies, the recovery plans linked to tourism and the constant dialogue with the social agents and the rest of the administrations, are bearing fruit: Spain is correcting the historical asymmetries regarding tourism employment, which is capable of generating wealth throughout the national territory, strengthening us as a key economic sector for the performance of GDP and as a country as a whole".
The autonomous communities where the number of employed people grew the most were La Rioja, with a 40.1 % year-on-year increase, Galicia, with 18.3 %, and the Balearic Islands, with 18.1 %.
The Autonomous Communities with the highest number of tourist flows (Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Andalusia, the Valencian Community and Madrid) together accounted for 74.5% of the total number of people employed in the sector in the second quarter.
Non official translation
