Employment slows in July, weighed down by education, and unemployment stagnates at 2.4 million.

The labor market followed the expected script for a July , freezing in terms of job creation and unemployment reduction. Thus, Social Security added 4,408 average contributors, 0.02%, to 21.86 million employed, while registered unemployment fell by 1,357, a mere 0.06%, to 2.4 million . Once again, the negative impact of seasonality on the education sector has not been felt. offset by job gains in other sectors.

The end of the summer recruitment campaign in the hospitality industry and the layoffs of teachers and other professionals in the sector, both on temporary and fixed-term contracts (54% of the members lost in this sector had this type of contract), make the seventh month of the year a period of transition in terms of employment, and this year has been no exception.

In July, most sectors of the General System saw a month-on-month increase in members, with the exception of Education "for seasonal reasons," according to the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security. Its 9.3% drop (127,000 fewer members) contrasts with the much more moderate increases in Healthcare Activities (2.7%), Artistic, Recreational, and Entertainment Activities (2.2%), and Commerce, Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Repair (1.8%).

Even so, the employment figures are somewhat better than last year's , when social security registration fell by 0.05%, providing a month of breathing room from the traditionally negative August figures. However, July's rebound was the weakest so far this year and keeps employment below the record high reached in May, when it broke the threshold of 2.87 million.

The performance of the preceding months allows for a year-on-year increase of 2.26%, an increase of 482,397 members. However, this is lower than the 2.35% recorded a year ago .

In year-on-year terms, Transport and Storage (+7.9%) and Artistic, Recreational and Entertainment Activities (+4.4%) are the ones that grew the most, followed by Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (+4.2%) and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities and Education (both +3.7%).

The number of self-employed workers, meanwhile, remains at record levels, above 3.4 million, 32,889 more than a year ago. The department headed by Elma Saiz highlights that almost three-quarters (72.9%) of these new self-employed workers have joined " highly productive sectors ," such as the Information and Communications and Professional, Scientific, and Technical Activities sectors.

Registered unemployment remains completely flat, with a monthly decline of less than 1,400 unemployed, or 0.06%. This figure is explained by the decline in the previously unemployed group, which fell by 3,315 (-1.45%). These individuals, having never paid contributions, are ineligible for contributory benefits or most subsidies, making them more likely to not renew their unemployment claim in the summer. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Labor highlights a decrease in the agricultural sector by 614 (0.78%), while it has increased in the construction sector by 138 (0.08%), in the industry by 416 (0.22%), and in the services sector by 2,018 (0.12%).

Although the data on membership and those published by the Ministry of Labor are not comparable due to different statistical methodologies, it is striking that the sector in which employment has fallen the most, education, is not the one in which registered unemployment has increased the most. This is better understood if we consider that, as we have said, 54% of those lost members had a permanent, temporary contract .

It's worth remembering that this provision doesn't apply to regulated educational centers for teacher contracts . It does apply to other activities such as driving schools, gyms, instructors, and academies, which see their activities interrupted or reduced to a minimum with the arrival of summer.

For this reason, although they are not the largest group among education employees, they are by far the most volatile: in a single month they have jumped from 8.7% to 3.8%, an unprecedented fluctuation even among temporary workers, who were the main cause of this summer precariousness before the labor reform. In any case, the fact that contracts that represent such a small percentage of the total are responsible for more than half of the job losses in a sector reflects the high level of precariousness in terms of effective job maintenance affecting the sector, which has not been corrected despite the labor reform.