Spain continues to be a country of lights and shadows. The percentage of people between 25 and 49 years old who work part-time involuntarily, since they cannot find a full-time job, was very high in 2023. Specifically, 59.7% of men and 48.6% of women. These figures far exceed the average for EU countries, where 30.4% of men and 18.1% of women work part-time due to the impossibility of doing so full-time.
These conclusions, and other explicit ones, can be drawn from the EPA third quarter data. Compared to the same quarter, but in this case 2023, Spain has managed to increase the employment rate by 376,000 people and unemployment has decreased by 140,400 people (-4.85%). However, youth unemployment remains the second highest in the EU, at 26.9%.
Of particular concern is part-time employment, which demonstrates the precariousness of employment today. In fact, In the last quarter it reached 12.8%, exceeding the 12.5% registered in the same period of 2023.
The data confirm that 47% of Spaniards who work part-time do so because they have not found a full-time jobwhile 13.8% do so due to family care obligations. This situation almost always leads to precariousness, since the salary is insufficient and does not guarantee being able to live with dignity.
Today we have the Active Population Survey (EPA) with data from the third quarter of 2024!!
The first thing we are going to see in this thread is how we maintain the path of growth in terms of the number of employed people.
Almost 22 million!! pic.twitter.com/Tk8ykHrOhz
— Javi Martínez (@javimartzs) October 25, 2024
Practically 1 in 2 part-time workers want to work more hours, but can’t find a full-time job. Occupational segregation shows that 73.7% of part-time workers are women.
In Spain, there are 2,793,900 people with part-time contractswhich represents 12.8% of the total number of employed persons in the country, which stands at 21,823,000. Between July and September 2024, 2,058,200 female workers They maintained a part-time job (73.6%), which translates into 9.43% of the total number of employed people in Spain.
In the case of men, 26.4% are on partial contracts and represent only 3.37% of the total of 21.8 million employed people in the country.
Reasons why part-time work is successful
The reasons are very different between men and women. It is usually linked to the inability to find a full-time jobbut other factors come into play such as family conciliation (care of children or dependent adults), maintain training o follow a series of essential family or personal obligations.
With 2022 data in hand, the main reason, among womenwas the inability to find full-time employment (48.4%), followed by caring for sick, disabled or elderly children or adults (17.3%).
among menthe inability to find a full-time job predominates (52.1%), followed by education or training courses (18,8%).
It may happen that the worker freely chooses part-time work. In Spain there are 261,000 people, accumulating two consecutive quarters of declines. Of these, 59,900 are men and 201,100 are women.
The influence of place of residence
It also influences, according to the EPA survey, the type of home. The percentages rise among women who work part-time in Spain and in the EU, if they are at the head of households with children. In the case of Spain, among women, the following predominate: adults living in another type of home (without a partner) with children, with 27.4%. This is followed by the case of an adult living as a couple with children (23%).
In the case of men, part-time work predominates among those households formed by an adult living in another type of household (non-couple) with children. In the EU this is the case of the adult who lives alone with two children.
Part-time work by age
Working part-time implies lower contribution bases and more modest future pensions.
46% of women work part-time because they cannot find more hours. The problem begins in the age group between 25 and 29, with 102,900 partially employed. Between 45 and 49 years old and between 50 and 54 years old, the problem is greater and There are 269,000 part-time jobssince they cannot obtain a full-time contract.
Among men, part-time contracts predominate among young people, that is, in the age groups of 20 to 24 years and 25 to 29 years. Both groups add up to 134,500 part-time employees.
Part-time work continues to be a really serious problem for the productive fabric of Spain. If the situation does not improve, both due to the conditions of the labor supply and the impact of the reduction in working hours, thousands of people would begin to enter a deep process of poverty due to the impossibility of meeting their daily expenses.
Source: www.elblogsalmon.com
