Unemployment rises in August despite tourists flocking to the Costa del Sol
Many temporary contracts in hotels, restaurants and shops ended last month, causing an increase in jobless figures.
Unemployment increased in Malaga province last month despite s
wathes of visitors flocking to the province and filling up hotels, shops, beach bars and restaurants.
Figures for registered unemployment were published this Monday 4 September, revealing that in August Malaga broke a streak of six consecutive months of falling jobless numbers. The August rise, however, was lower than usual: 513 people compared to 1,562 in the same month of 2022, 1,391 in 2019 and 1,943 in 2018.
Why is it that unemployment rises in the busiest month for tourism? The explanation is simple: at the end of August, many temporary contracts linked to hotels, restaurants, shops and all other tourism-related businesses come to an end. Workers on these contracts are then considered unemployed by the time the national employment figures for the month of August are released.
The reason why the rise in unemployment this August is lower compared to previous years could be due to a reduction in temporary contracts as a result of the labour reform that came into force in 2022. Between January and August this year, 204,336 temporary contracts were signed compared to 512,026 in the same period in 2019.
The increase in unemployment in August affects two sectors: services (with 535 more unemployed) and construction (with 435 more).
Employment falls after record July
Social Security statistics show that the annual employment peak never occurs in August, but in July. In terms of the number of people registered as contributors, in August there is almost always a fall compared to the previous month, this time by 2,319 people in the case of Malaga. Employment stands at 708,594 workers, compared with the 710,913 that set the all-time record in July.
In Andalucía, figures fell in August by 17,387 people with respect to the previous month (0.52%), with Seville being the region that lost the most jobs: 6,862.
