The pandemic has put the job market at the forefront two key activities in the fight against covid: the Health and education. In the record year of social security enrollment in the Basque Country, these are the two business segments that are growing the most. The sector therefore continues to lose weight within the social security affiliation regime, despite the fact that manufacturing activities are increasingly generating ancillary employment linked to the digitization of the sector.
The dynamics were accentuated with the outbreak of the coronavirus, but it was already a very solid trend. If we take 2008 as a reference, the year in which the previous best record for workers was achieved and the perfect storm of the financial crisis unleashed, the industrial workforce is down 17%. Factories have gone from employing nearly 218,300 people to nearly 186,600 workers.
By the way 37,677 industrial jobs were lost, largely due to the advancement of new technologies and the simplification of production processes. In his case, a large part of the employment has gone to swell the ranks of the service sector, where the auxiliary support offered by ICTs fits. Overall, the factories acquired 2,016 franchisees in the Basque Country last year.
The dynamics in Education and Health are opposite. A total of 113,007 people work in the health sector of the Basque Autonomous Community at the end of 2022, almost 35,000 more than at the end of 2008, an increase of 44.7%. In relation to December 2021, healthcare activities generated 15,910 jobs. In this case, two great levers of growth coincide. On the one hand, the needs directly related to the fight against covid and, on the other, the constant increase in actions related to the silver economy due to the aging of the population.
In the field of education, last year closed with an average of 80,338 workers, which represents a 14-year increase of 25,700 jobs. Progress as a percentage (47%) is even higher than that of Healthcare. Also noted in this chapter is the extra support that many young people have needed in their training processes during the pandemic.
Hospitality and trade
Also striking is the increase since 2008 of professionals in professional, scientific and technical activities, a voice that includes lawyers, architects, engineers, researchers and even veterinarians, among others. With a growth of 29% in the last fourteen years, a total of 61,044 Basques work in this segment, also increased by 3% in 2022 compared to the previous year.
The hospitality sector also saw a great dynamism in hiring last year (2.6%) after confirming the end of the covid restrictions. There are almost 67,500 people who receive a salary from a hotel or restaurant. The workforce dedicated to these tasks has grown by 26% since the outbreak of the financial crisis.
The driving effect of these large professional groups has boosted services employment over the past decade and a half. However, the tertiary sector’s main business, commerce, steadily lost employees during this period. In his case, the Internet played against him and at the moment just under 136,000 people live from commerce in the Basque Country, almost 6,500 fewer (-4.5%) than in 2008.
Also striking is the collapse of the construction workforce, which today has 27,341 fewer social security contributions than at the time of the property boom. The dynamics of agriculture and fisheries have also been sustainedly negative, although they remain around 6,000 jobs after growing by 94 last year. he
WORKING RECORDS
994.077 Basque affiliates. December ended with just over 994,000 Social Security enrollees in the Basque Country, which is the highest figure recorded, after gaining 14,055 taxpayers in the full year. .
113.007 healthcare occupation. The Basque economy recorded an average of around 113,000 health-related jobs in December. The increase compared to 2021 is 1.4%, but since 2008 it has grown by 45%.
80.338 education workers. The CAV workforce linked to educational activities exceeded the barrier of 80,300 people last year. The recovery of the last fourteen years exceeds 47%.
