According to the data corresponding to the Survey of Active Population released today by Turespaña, under the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, in the second quarter of the year the figure of 2,695,602 employed linked to tourism activities was reached, which means 39,538 employees more than in the same period of the previous year and a year-on-year growth of 1.5%. It is the highest level in the historical series and exceeds the levels prior to the crisis by more than 75,000.
Those employed in the tourism sector represent 13.6% of the total employment of the Spanish economy. The unemployment rate stands at 11.1%, the lowest figure for a second quarter since 2009.
In the second quarter of 2019, the number of employees in tourism grew by 2.3% year-on-year to 2,221,641, contributing 82.4% of the total.
Especially noteworthy in this quarter is an improvement in hiring that manifests itself in the 6.1% year-on-year increase in wage earners with an indefinite contract – which already accounts for 67.2% of total contracts – while employees who work are decreasing with temporary contract (-4.6%).
In relation to the type of working day, full-time employees increase by 3'8% and already represent 74.2% of the total, compared to employees with part-time work, which decrease by -1.6%.
The acting Secretary of State for Tourism, Isabel Oliver, considers that the EPA data “show the dynamism of employment in the tourism sector and the improvements in its quality, as reflected in a greater indefinite and full-time hiring. The shock plans included in the Master Plan for Decent Work approved in August 2018 by the Government and developed by the Ministry of Labor, Migration and Social Security, one against fraud in temporary hiring and the other contributed to this good data. against the irregular use of part-time hiring. The objective of these plans is to recover labor rights and improve the quality of employment and working conditions, and contribute to improving the competitiveness and productivity of the tourism sector ”.
By autonomous communities
The autonomous communities with the highest number of tourist flows (Catalonia, Andalusia, Community of Madrid, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Community) are the ones that generate the most employment, together in the second quarter of the year, 74.2% of the total number of employed persons The tourism sector.
Ceuta and Melilla stand out for the growth in the number of employed in tourism in this second quarter (64.2%), followed by the Autonomous Communities of the Basque Country (25.9%) and La Rioja (25.9%), while that Asturias, Murcia, Aragon and the Balearic Islands were the communities where the most employed decreased compared to the same quarter of the previous year.