The most recent unemployment report from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) revealed that unemployment rose 0.3% between February and March this year.
While in February the percentage of people without work was 7.3%, in March it was 7.7%. In this last month, the activity rate was 61.9% and the employment rate was 57.1%.
In total there were 1,795,500 active people in March, of which 1,656,500 were working and 139,000 were unemployed, according to data from the National Household Survey of the INE.
“By observing the characteristics of employed people, it is estimated that 8.9% are underemployed (employed people who work less than 40 hours), while non-registration with social security for their main job stands at 21.3 %”, says the INE report.
“Another characteristic to mention is that related to the phenomenon of absent employed persons (those workers who, without having worked the reference week, maintain a link with their job; they are absent due to vacations, illness, study, etc.) whose estimate for the February was 10.6%. As for the average effective hours worked4 in the main occupation, this was estimated at 33.2 hours. The evolution of these indicators can be seen in the graphs below”, adds the agency.
From December to March, job vacancy has been increasing: in the last month of 2021 it had fallen to 7.0%. The maximum registered in the last two years was in October 2020 when there were 10.6% of people without work, a maximum that had not been touched since May 2007.