The Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (Cepyme) has stated this Tuesday that the results of the Active Population Survey (EPA) for the third quarter highlight the problems of small companies in continuing to generate jobs in a context of "clear deceleration," in which the increase of 73,600 employed between July and September constitutes "the worst figure for a third quarter since before the pandemic."
In a statement, the employers' association of SMEs indicates that the year-on-year growth of employment moderated to 2.1% in a scenario marked by strong cost pressures, which put the profitability of many companies and even the continuity of their activity at risk.
To illustrate this situation, Cepyme cites statistics from the Bank of Spain and recalls that 63% of companies report negative or very negative effects due to the rise in energy costs, especially in agriculture, transport, and industry, while 62% claim to be conditioned by political uncertainty.
The organization highlights that this environment has led to job destruction in the private sector during the summer months, with 16,300 fewer employed linked to the decline of self-employment.
In detail, employers without salaried employees or self-employed workers decreased by 43,000 people in the quarter and recorded a year-on-year decline of 4.9%. This behavior contrasts with the year-on-year increase of 1.4% in private employment compared to the acceleration of 5.8% in the public sector.
Cepyme insists that the evolution of the labor market must be interpreted in a context of "growing pressures on the productive fabric" and an intense increase in population. "The historical maximum number of employed occurs in a context in which the population has also reached historical maximums," Cepyme points out.
At the same time, it warns that the unemployment rate has risen again above 10% (10.18%, after increasing 0.31 points in the quarter), placing Spain, along with Finland, at the forefront of unemployment in the European Union, in a scenario of high structural unemployment.
Of the 2.6 million unemployed people, the employers' association warns that almost a third are long-term unemployed: 19.5% (506,000 people) have been without work for more than two years and 13.2% (342,000 people) for between one and two years. In addition, there is a high unemployment rate among those under 25 years old, which reaches 23.3%.
In light of this situation, Cepyme calls for strengthening the effectiveness of employment policies and improving the fit between the supply and demand for work, emphasizing that access to talent continues to be a brake on many business projects. For this reason, it requests to specifically address issues such as the "high and growing absenteeism" and the difficulties in filling vacancies.