The Quarterly Bulletin of Employment in SMEs, prepared by the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CEPYME) and Randstad Research, the center of studies and analysis of Randstad in Spain, highlights the importance that SMEs will continue to have in the use of country set. In fact, it reveals that, during the first quarter of 2019, this type of company has generated a total of 58,644 jobs. This figure is 3.2% more than the same period last year, these are, 318,234 professionals.
The report carried out by Randstad Research and CEPYME analyzes the behavior of the labor market of SMEs, which has been driven by the favorable evolution of the economy. During the first quarter of 2019, the GDP has increased by 0.7% with respect to the previous period, while, according to the Social Security records, there has been an advance of the membership estimated at 0.2% in the same period.
By size, small businesses (those of 10 out of 49 workers), with a total of 29,502 affiliates and micro enterprises (from 1 to 9 employees), with 26,761 affiliates are the ones that have increased the most employment in this quarter, both by 0.8%. Medium-sized companies (between 50 and 249 employees), with 2,381 members, hardly increased hiring (0.1%).
However, large companies have registered a worse performance during the first period of the year, reducing the volume of affiliates in more than 27,000 workers. In absolute terms, during the first quarter, 30,973 affiliations were registered in our country.
On the other hand, CEPYME and Randstad Research detect that, during the first three months of 2019, restoration and construction have been the main sectors of activity in the SME segment, followed by public services. Financial services have been the activity that registered the most significant reduction in employment in companies with more than 50 employees, while among the smaller ones, retail activities were those that experienced less activity.
SMEs will generate 543,000 jobs between 2019 and 2020
The Quarterly Bulletin of Employment in SMEs also includes the forecast for the period 2019-2020 that SMEs generate more than 543,000 new affiliations, which represents 70% of the employment that will be created in the country in this period. Specifically, the study foresees growth for this year of 3.0% over the previous year (297,521 hirings) and 2.4% for 2020 (245,789). These figures, while positive, reflect a slight deceleration in job creation.
By sectors, the report reveals that, over the next few years, services will be the one that will boost the labor market, with 225,940 jobs and a growth of 2.9% in year-on-year terms, while for 2020, 185,628 jobs are expected and an increase of 2.3%. The forecast of job creation for the period 2019-2020 in the services sector will represent 75.6% of all that will be generated by SMEs.
However, in relative terms, the highest employment growth rates will be recorded in the construction sector, with increases in membership of 5.3% (+ 41,292 jobs) in 2019 and 4.6% by 2020.
The industrial sector is expected to register 26,810 new jobs and a growth of 1.8%, while in 2020 there will be 19,104 new incorporations and a slight increase of 1.3%, with the sector with more discrete growth. Agriculture, on the other hand, registered 4.4% growth and 3,480 contracts, 2,862 and 3.5% more in 2020.