A change in work situation
The situation of the labor market in Catalonia has experienced an unexpected turn. According to the most recent data from the Active Population Survey, unemployment has increased by 12,800 people in the country during the first quarter of the year. This has raised the number of unemployed in Catalonia to more than 396,000, which has brought the unemployment rate to almost 9.5%, an increase of five tenths compared to the end of 2023, when it was below 9%. . This result places Catalonia as the fourth territory with the highest increase in the unemployment rate, led by Madrid. At the national level, the escalation has led to an increase of 117,000 new unemployed, reaching 12.29%. With this increase, the Spanish labor market once again surpasses the barrier of three million unemployed people.
Sectoral impact
As has been observed in recent months, the services sector has been the main protagonist of the increase in unemployment in Catalonia. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics, during the first quarter of 2024, the number of unemployed in the tertiary sector would have increased by approximately 10,400 people, affected by the end of high tourist seasons, such as Christmas, and an always intense autumn. in Barcelona. Next is industry, which has once again exceeded 20,000 unemployed, with an increase of around 5,000 people in productive companies. On the other hand, the construction sector, already at a low point, has experienced a reduction in its labor base of around 3,000 people, while the agricultural sector has remained relatively stable, with a negative variation of around 200 workers. .
Unstable quarter, successful year
With this decline in sectoral employment, the number of employed people stands at 3.78 million. It is important to highlight that economic cycles usually have a negative impact in the first quarter in terms of unemployment. In fact, the employment figures, with nearly 3.8 million working people, represent a record for the first period of the year in the historical series. Compared to the same period of the previous year, Catalonia has 5.35% more people employed, which is equivalent to more than 190,000 people above the figure between January and March 2023. However, the quarterly variation shows a decrease of 17,000 employed people compared to the period between October and December.
