Unemployment fell by 49,260 people in May, the lowest figure since 2008.

He number of registered unemployed in offices public employment services decreased by 49,260 persons in May compared to the previous month (-1.8%) driven primarily by service sector, which concentrated 70% of the fall in unemployment. Thus, at the end of May, the total number of unemployed persons was 2,739,110, which is the lowest level of this month since 2008, according to data published this Friday by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy and collected by Europa Press.

The department headed by Yolanda Díaz noted that the decline in May is “very positive” and is part of the context of “quality employment and historic highs both in membership and in the active population.”

The drop in unemployment in May This year, the third in a row after March and April, is lower than the declines in May 2022 and 2021, when unemployment fell by 99,512 and 129,378 people. Nevertheless, this year’s decline is greater than that recorded in May 2020, when the pandemic caused a jump in unemployment for 26,573 unemployed. Excluding 2020, the decrease in unemployment in May this year is the least significant since 2012, when unemployment fell by just over 30,000 people.

Seasonally adjusted, registered unemployment increased in the fifth month of 2023 by 11,963 people. Last year, unemployment accumulated a drop of 183,881 unemployed, which is 6.3% less, with a drop in female unemployment by 85,955 women (-4.9%) and a drop in male unemployment by 97,926 men (-8.3%).

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For its part, social security received an average of 200,411 contributions in May compared to the previous month (+0.97%), which led to the system exceeding 20.8 million employed persons for the first time in its history. Specifically, this sharp increase in employmentstimulated especially by hospitality and trade, set the total number of contributions for social security at an average of 20,815,399 people.

The increase in membership recorded in May this year is slightly lower than the increase achieved in the same month in 2022 and 2021, when employment increased by more than 210,000 persons, but it is above the data for 2020 (+97,462 employees).

Excluding that year, affected by the pandemic and quarantines, the increase in the number of employees in May this year (+200,411) was the least pronounced since 2016, when the system added 198,000 contributors. Last year, Social Security gained 582,676 branches in average values, with year-over-year growth of 2.9%, a rate similar to that recorded in April (+2.98%).

In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of social security contributors recorded its tenth consecutive monthly increase in May after 47,883 employees were added to the system compared to April (+0.2%), to a total of 20,709,078 connected members, thus surpassing the first path, a barrier of 20.7 million associates.

The Ministry also points out that in the first five months of this year, 468,184 jobs were created, which is the most in the period January-May in the historical series. In addition, the Department headed by José Luis Escriva pointed out that the current level of membership is almost 1.3 million higher than that which existed before the start of the pandemic, in February 2020.

At the end of the fifth month of the year, the contributor/pensioner ratio reached 2.41, the highest value in ten years, while income from contributions grew by April (the latest available data) at the highest annual rate in the last 16 years. down payment of 9.3 percent.