The unemployment data and Social Security affiliation for the month of September reflect a positive evolution, with a decrease in the former by 26,329 people and an increase in the latter by 84,013 affiliates, which shows the enormous effort of the business sector and individuals workers to regain economic normality and return to activity, in an environment of great uncertainty marked by the outbreaks of Covid-19 and the restrictions to contain the pandemic.
However, it cannot be ignored that in one year unemployment has increased by 696,774 people and there are 447,062 fewer affiliates, having lost 947,896 affiliates at the most critical moments of the pandemic, of which 447,367 have recovered between May and September.
The ERTEs data corroborate a slowdown in the recovery of activity compared to previous months; while in July the number of activated workers evolved at a rate of 39% and in August of 27.36%, in September it was only 10.28%.
Likewise, the numbers of workers in ERTE reveal a heterogeneous behavior in this recovery, which represents the greatest difficulty in some territories and sectors to return to normality. Thus, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands register the highest coverage rates of ERTEs and it is where fewer workers have left them, 48.83% in the Balearic Islands and 62.34% in the Canary Islands, due to their enormous dependence on international tourism strongly affected by mobility restrictions.
Likewise, the coverage rates of ERTEs in hotels, commerce and cultural and leisure and entertainment activities in general are very high, being the sectors of activity that are suffering with the greatest intensity the effects of the sanitary containment measures adopted as a result of the evolution of the pandemic, compared to the advance, in terms of unemployment and affiliation, that most sectors present. This situation is also reflected in the drop in year-on-year membership, which stood at 16.76% in hospitality and in artistic, recreational and entertainment activities at 12.38%.
Therefore, there is still a long way to go to recover the employment levels prior to the crisis and the normality of the activity in some sectors and territories, which shows the success of the accompanying measures adopted in the Third Defense Agreement of Employment focused on those most affected by the crisis.
