The year 2019 has been a year in which the protagonists, once again, have been the self-employed when it comes to employment. A year of stagnation and deceleration that seems to be confirmed in 2020. Autonomous data close with positive growth and the number of RETA affiliates is consolidated, although its momentum has slowed down in 2019.
The Special Regime of RETA Autonomous Workers in Spain totals in 2019 (until November) a total of 14,429 affiliates until reaching 3,269,092 people, growth 71% lower than the first eleven months of 2018, when the RETA added 49,460 autonomous. In other words, in 2019 Social Security totals a total of 35,031 freelancers less than in 2018.
"The trend of deceleration that is occurring in recent months continues: unemployment is reduced by 155,000 people less than the previous year, 132,000 fewer net jobs are created and the growth of freelancers drops by 35,000 people compared to 2018," he says. Lorenzo Amor, president of the National Federation of Associations of Autonomous Workers, ATA.
“Stability, moderation, certainty and legal certainty is what our economy needs right now. It is essential to trust for the generation of employment and to carry out adequate policies that encourage entrepreneurship and that do not penalize employment generators, ”says Lorenzo Amor.
ATA is confident that 2020 is a year in which the path of stability and reforms is back to stay and thus acquire new rights and improve social protection for all self-employed.
"2020, when one year of the full entry into force of the Autonomous Law that facilitated many new activities and consolidated those that needed a respite, will be a year of acquisition of new rights for the self-employed," says Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA. “We are moving towards equal rights. It is a big step".
The forecast is that there are 15,000 more freelancers and that the group as a whole creates another 40,000 salaried jobs. That is, we expect the freelancers to generate a total of 55,000 net jobs next year, half that of last year. In Spain as a whole, we estimate that employment could add up to around 200,000 new jobs, half that in 2019, and will grow by 1.1% on average.
This increase will also be possible thanks to the fact that the economy will grow around 1.4-1.5%, which predicts a favorable environment for the activities carried out by the self-employed and for entrepreneurship. On the other hand, ATA estimates that prices will rise around 1.1% (CPI) and consumption in the environment of 1%.
2020 will start with new goals
In 2018, the Law on Urgent Reforms of Autonomous Labor entered into force, with some measures such as related conciliation, as well as those relating to bonuses for hiring family and disabled people, the compatibility of 100% of the retirement pension and the activity on their own account provided they have at least one worker in their care. 2019 started with the improvement of the access to the cessation of activity of the self-employed, with the right to collect the benefit for work accident or occupational disease from the first day of discharge., With the right to access the continuous training and professional recycling, with the guarantee that they will not pay the Social Security fee from the second month of sick leave or temporary disability until the moment of discharge, and the extension of the rate from € 60 to 12 months.
“Among the sectors, trade faces great challenges such as online sales and digitalization that, as we have said before, will force traders to renew themselves and those pre-crisis figures will not be recovered”, said Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA. “Trade is the sector that has most accused the depopulation process that worries us so much. When the small business is closed in a town, the town dies, and when there are no real opportunities for entrepreneurship and generational change in those same towns, young people leave and businesses lose all possibility of customers. Where a trade closes, the life of the people is lost. ”
The National Federation of Workers Associations remember that we have already sent a series of urgent proposals and demands to all parties. In a few days in which the economic slowdown is already evident, from ATA we expect a stable and moderate agreement to be formed. It is not time to raise taxes or increase public spending.
The Spanish business fabric needs a stable and moderate government that establishes the necessary measures, likewise, stable and moderate and that responsibly addresses the main concerns of Spanish freelancers. The economic slowdown, which is already seen in several indicators such as the slowdown in the growth of freelancers in recent months, is affordable even if the reins are taken and all public policies are adjusted with budgetary rigor.