A few days ago, we echoed the latest ATA Barometer, related to the situation of the self-employed in Spain. The association also leaves us some interesting data on how 2022 has gone for the affiliation of the self-employed, by community. In fact, just Canary Islands (+2.8%), Balearic Islands (+1.9%), Valencian Community (+0.6%), Community of Madrid (+0.5%) and Andalusia (+0.3%) have managed to close the year positively.
And it is that, in Spain as a whole, last year 1,204 self-employed workers were lost, according to the last day data published by the Social Security. “It is the worst data since 2012 and the first that the self-employed have lost in the last decade in net terms of affiliation on the last day”has assured Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA.
Except for these five autonomous communities, the rest of the regions have lost self-employed affiliation in 2022. autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla They are the ones that lose the most, in percentage terms. La Rioja leads this negative ranking with a decrease of -1.9% in one year, which means 483 fewer in absolute numbers in 12 months. Castilla y León is the second autonomous community with the highest loss of self-employed. In 2022, CyL fell from the barrier of 190,000 to 187,395, a total of 2,806 less self-employed, -1.5%. Galicia and Asturias have decreased their number by -1.4%, in one year. In absolute figures we are talking about a loss of -2,897 self-employed in 2022 in Galicia and 1,000 self-employed in Asturias.
By provinces
Both Castilla y León, Galicia and Aragón registered a loss of self-employed in all their provinces. The provinces that have registered the greatest percentage loss of self-employed in a year are: Lugo (-2.3%), Palencia and Teruel (-2.2%), León (-2.1%) and Ourense (-2%).
Canary Islands It is the autonomous community with the highest growth and it is due to the fact that its two provinces are also the ones that have grown the most in affiliation in one year. Especially noteworthy is the 3.3% growth of the self-employed in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Las Palmas has added 1,520 self-employed workers in 12 months, representing a growth of 2.2%. The third fastest growing province, and which has been among the top entrepreneurship positions for years, is Malaga with an increase of 1.1%. With the same percentage, the province of Cádiz grows, which has added in absolute figures to 682 self-employed.
The Valencian Community (+0.6% regional average) registers an uneven performance among its provinces. The province of Alicante is the fifth Spanish province with the highest growth of self-employed in a year (+0.9%), while Valencia province closes the year in positive but below the regional average (+0.5%) and Castellón has lost self-employed affiliation in the last year (-0.1%).
“The worst figures are marked by three fundamental sectors. It’s a debacle in trade, hospitality and industry with strong loss of self-employed in the year”, assured Lorenzo Amor, president of ATA.
The data on the last day reflects a significant drop of -2.6% in trade in the sectors, which in absolute numbers reflects a drop of 19,699 self-employed workers in a single year. Financial activities have lost 1.5% of those engaged in this activity in one year. They are followed by the sector of industry (-1.3%), hospitality and agriculture (-1.1%). The sector of transportation it also loses RETA affiliates with an annual drop of -0.5%, which means 1,102 fewer carriers in one year.
On the contrary, the artistic and entertainment activities have grown by 4.5% in 2022. Real estate activities (+4.2%), information and communication (+3.8%) and health activities (+3.7%) have also had a significant increase.
As for the gender It should be noted that the self-employed are the ones with the greatest entrepreneurial drive in Spain. In 2022 the male self-employed have decreased by 9,022 affiliates, a decrease of 0.4% while the self-employed have increased in one year by 7,816 affiliates (+0.6%).
