Social Security affiliations recover in November to 19 million amid COVID-19 pandemic

The Spanish job market is showing unexpected vigor amid an economic crisis of unprecedented proportions, with help from the government’s ERTE employment retention scheme.

Social Security affiliations, considered a measure of job creation, grew in November for the seventh month in a row.

The average number of contributors to the national safety net program was 19,022,002.

This is the first time that this number has reached the 19-million mark since March, when the government decreed the state of alarm and imposed the strict lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Registered unemployment rose by 25,269 claims, according to figures released by the Labour and Social Security ministries.

The total number of people out of employment reached 3.85 million in November, representing a jobless rate of just over 16%.

But a picture of the Spanish job market is not complete without considering the effects of the ERTE job retention schemes.

The number of furloughed workers reached 746,900 in late November, a rise of around 18,500 from late October.

The figure is similar to the one recorded in August.

Read more in a press release from Spain’s ministry of social security here.