The number of Social Security affiliates in seasonally adjusted terms stood at 19,914,375 people in January, after increasing in the last month by 71,948 compared with the previous month (up 0.36%), exceeding the usual average of the years prior to the pandemic.
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This is the ninth consecutive month in which Social Security enrolment has increased. In this period almost 900,000 more workers have registered.
January’s figure is the highest level of enrolment recorded in the series and exceeds by 434,561 the number of people employed in February 2020, the month prior to the start of the COVID-19 health crisis. Even discounting workers in ERTE or self-employed with extraordinary benefits, the level of employment in February 2020, before the start of the health crisis, is 295,000 higher than in February 2020.
Recovery by sector
By sector, the recovery of employment with respect to pre-pandemic levels is generalised, highlighting the good performance of information and communications and health activities, which grew by 10.7% and 8.4% with respect to their pre-pandemic levels.
Geographical recovery
Geographically, the recovery of the pre-pandemic level of employment is also widespread, with all but two provinces exceeding their February 2020 level. In some thirty provinces, employment has grown by more than 2% over the pre-pandemic level.
Growth by a branch of activity
Disregarding seasonality and the calendar effect, there has been growth in almost all branches of activity. The largest increase occurred in the Services sector, with 64,278 more registered workers, followed by Industry (5,528) and Construction (3,513). The Industry branch has grown consecutively in every month since June 2020, while Construction has been growing since February 2021 and Services since May last year. Agriculture loses 1,797 members due to the end of most of the agricultural campaigns.
For its part, the number of wage earners increased by 68,746 workers compared to December, while the number of non-wage earners increased by 2,799 people. The group of self-employed workers accumulates 15 consecutive months of growth.
Year-on-year growth
Over the last year and without seasonal adjustment, enrolment has grown by 797,681 persons, which represents an increase of 4.24% in the average number of workers. The sectors with the largest increases over the same month last year in the General System are Accommodation (16.68%), Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (15.72%), Information and Communications (9.10%) and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (7.17%).
In terms of territories, in the last twelve months, all the Autonomous Communities have added new workers. The increase in Social Security affiliates in the Canary Islands (6.84%), the Balearic Islands (5.31%), the Community of Madrid (5.25%) and Castile-La Mancha (5.01%) stands out.