Unemployment in the Marina Alta fell during April to lowest since August 2008

Easter week proved to be a positive boost for the labour market in the Marina Alta. April is a good month for employment, with notable increases in social security registrations, boosted by the hospitality sector, which is beginning to experience a significant influx of tourists with the start of the high season. Therefore, this past month saw an increase of 1,437 employed people (2.31%), above the same month last year.

Year-on-year, Social Security registrations increased by 1,599, bringing the total to 63,511, making it the best April on record and the highest number of contributors since last August, when the figure surpassed 65,000. It’s worth noting that employment grew at a slightly faster rate in April than the previous month, at 2.58% year-on-year, compared to 0.42% in March. This increase is even higher compared to its growth rate for 2024, when the rate was -0.28% year-on-year (April 2024/April 2023).

The 1,437 new jobs created in April significantly exceed those created in the same month last year (99), although they are fewer than those created in 2023 (1,493). Membership has accumulated fourteen consecutive months of figures above 60 and the total number of members continues to increase for the third consecutive month, setting a new record in the historical series (the fourth largest month-on-month increase since 2024). By sex, women now have 28,889 members, while men have 34,622. In the last year, employment has grown slightly more among women, with an increase of 2.80% compared to 2.40% for men.

This boost also served to reduce the unemployment list, which registered 256 fewer people, reaching a total of 7,949 unemployed, the lowest figure since August 2008. This change improves on the figure for April 2024, when the number of unemployed people fell by 81, but is less favorable than in April 2023 and April 2022, when the decrease exceeded 300 people, or than in the period 2014–2019, when the average decrease during this month was 477 people. However, this figure does represent a year-on-year decrease of 6.42% and is equivalent to 545 fewer unemployed people than a year earlier.

Female unemployment fell by 123 (-2.62%) compared to March, bringing the total number of unemployed women to 4,567, the lowest figure since 2008. Male unemployment also fell (133 fewer unemployed, down 3.78%), leaving the total number registered at LABORA’s various offices at 3,382. The number of total registered unemployed has never been below the 8,000 mark for 17 years, since August 2008.

By age, unemployed people under 25 also benefited in April, with 41 fewer than the previous month, representing the largest relative decrease among the various age groups. This brings the total number of registered young people to 386.

A total of 2,869 contracts were signed in April. This represents a 6.55% decrease compared to April 2024, equivalent to 201 fewer contracts. Furthermore, contracting has increased compared to the previous month (283 more contracts than in March). Thus, there have been four months of year-on-year increases and four months of year-on-year decreases so far this year. It should be noted that permanent contracts represented 70.16% of the total in April: 2,013 contracts out of 2,869. This percentage confirms the scenario of stability in the hiring of the labour market.

According to data from the Marina Alta Observatory of CREAMA and PACTE’MA – a project subsidized by LABORA Valencian Employment and Training Service and by the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, within the AVALEM TERRITORI program of the Generalitat Valenciana – in the calculation of the unemployment rate, in the Marina Alta it continues to have a stable unemployment rate (lower compared to March), standing at an estimated unemployment rate of 11.12%, a figure lower than in April 2024 (12.06%), and lower than the province of Alicante and the Comunidad Valenciana (14.01% and 12.24%, respectively).