Hospitality and commerce account for half of 100,000 jobs created in Malaga since pandemic

The milestone was so striking that it made headlines linked to the employment and unemployment data released this week: Malaga province exceeded, for the first time in its history, 700,000 workers affiliated to the Social Security system. The province has experienced a real 'sprint' of job creation since the end of the pandemic. The last 100,000 of these 700,000 contributors have been gained in a very short period of just over two years: from April 2021 (when the restrictions began to be relaxed in line with the mass vaccination) to June 2023.

Related news

Malaga exceeds 700,000 people in jobs for first time ever

The relative growth in employment from April 2021 until now has been 16.6%, while the national average in that period has been 9.5%.

To find out, it is useful to analyse which sectors have been the driving force behind the growth in employment. The undisputed leader is the hospitalityl and catering industry, which in these two years and two months has seen an increase of 38,500 new workers, rising from 64,000 to almost 103,000. This tremendous growth, 60% in proportional terms, has an explanation linked to Covid-19. That is the catering and tourism sectors, in these two years, have gone from being subject to restrictions and having a good part of their workers on ERTE to recovering and exceeding pre-pandemic levels of activity.

The second sector that has generated the most jobs is commerce, with almost 13,000 new affiliates, representing a growth of 16% and placing the sector (which was already the largest) at an all-time high of 121,000 employees. Between hotels and catering and commerce, the two sectors that have been hardest hit by the Covid restrictions, they account for half of the 100,000 jobs created in Malaga.

The following activities that have added the most affiliates in absolute numbers in the province are administrative activities (with almost 9,800 more), construction (with almost 8,500 more) and transport and logistics (with 7,300 more).

There is another sector whose increase in contributors is more discreet than the previous ones in absolute terms, but which in relation to its size is the second fastest-growing after the hotel and catering sector: technology. This sector has increased from 15,200 to 20,700 people on the payroll, a proportional increase of 36%.

The growth in employment extends to other sectors such as health, which added more than 5,000 workers; professional, scientific and technical activities (+4,931); artistic and recreational activities (+4,237); other services (+3,084); real estate activities (+2,131); education (+2,126); manufacturing industry (+1,925) and agriculture (+723).

Only two sectors escaped this positive employment trend in Malaga: Public administration and defence, which lost 766 workers (this category does not include public health and education workers); and financial activities, with a decrease of 231.

More than 90% of the 100,000 jobs created in the province in the last two years are salaried. The self-employed scheme has added less than 8,000 contributors over this period, compared with almost 99,000 in the general scheme. The gender distribution was almost even, with a slight advantage for women: 52,000 of the new affiliates are women and 50,000 are men.

The rise in employment in the province since the pandemic has been accompanied by an increase, also very significant, in the active population. Since 2020, Malaga has become one of the provinces with the highest population growth in Spain, and this has been due to the arrival of new residents, many of whom are people who are ready to work. So, while Malaga has added 100,000 workers since 2021, rising from 600,000 to 700,000, the active population has increased by almost 54,000 people (from 787,000 to 840,000).