Press Release 21/10/2020

SURVEY ON POPULATION IN RELATION TO ACTIVITY. III/2020

The unemployment rate stood at 10%, and the working population increased by 0.3% in the third quarter of 2020 in the Basque Country

In almost six out of every ten households all active individuals were in work, 4,300 more than in the previous quarter

The data from the labour market in the Basque Country from the third quarter of 2020 showed a figure of 916,300 individuals in work, which is an increase of 3,100 compared with the previous quarter (+0.3%), according to Eustat data. There were an estimated 101,800 people out of work in the Basque Country in the third quarter of the year, 8,600 fewer than in the previous quarter.

On the other hand, the unemployment rate of the Basque Country stood at 10%, 0.8 percentage points down on the second quarter of 2020. As a result of the evolution in the employed and unemployed population, the activity rate stood at 54.5% in the third quarter of 2020, falling 0.4 points in respect of the previous quarter.

By province and compared to the previous quarter, Gipuzkoa experienced the biggest rise in employment, with 1,600 more people in work; followed by Álava, with an increase of 1,000, whilst in Bizkaia employment was up by 400. Regarding the capitals, in Bilbao there were 2,800 more employed people, almost the same as in San Sebastián (2,600), whereas in Vitoria-Gasteiz there were 1,200 more people in work.

In terms of gender, the rise in employment affected men the most, with 4,000 more in work than the previous quarter, whilst the number of women in work fell by 900.

With regards to nationality, the number of Spanish nationals in work was up by 1,900, whilst the number of foreign nationals in work increased by 1,100.

Employment increased above all in the services sector

The employed population in the Basque Country increased by 3,700 in the services sector, rose by 100 in industry and remained stable in the construction sector; in contrast, the number of people employed in the primary sector fell by 900.

The employment rate, calculated as the percentage of people in work aged 16 to 64 over the total for these ages, rose by one percentage points compared to the previous quarter, standing at 65.7%. This figure reached 69% for men and 62.4% for women.

With regards to the level of education completed, the employment rate increased by 0.5 percentage points among people who had completed secondary and intermediate education; however it was down 0.3 percentage points among those who had completed higher education, standing at 81.8%; and fell 0.4 points among people educated to primary school level or lower, standing at 56.8%.

As regards nationality, the highest employment rate was recorded amongst Spanish nationals, with 67.3%, whereas for foreign nationals it stood at 50%.

By province, Gipuzkoa had the highest employment rate, at 67.9%, an increase of 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. Álava came second with 65.3% and a decrease of 0.2 points; and in Bizkaia, the employment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points to stand at 64.4%.

The number of households with all active individuals out of work fell by 1,200

In the third quarter of 2020 it was estimated that there were 899,300 households in the Basque Country, of which a third did not have any active individuals. In almost six out of every ten households, all of the active individuals were in work, 4,300 families more than the previous quarter; furthermore, households where all active individuals were unemployed stood at 31,700, 1,200 fewer households than in the previous quarter.

The third quarter of 2020 revealed an unemployment rate of 10%, 0.8 points down on the previous quarter

The unemployed population in the Basque Country, that is, individuals who are available for work, actively making enquiries and seeking employment, was estimated to be 101,800 in the third quarter of the year, 8,600 down on the previous quarter. The number of unemployed men, 51,100, was down 7,400, whilst the number of unemployed women decreased by 1,300, reaching a total of 50,600 for the quarter.

The data for the third quarter of 2020 revealed an unemployment rate of 10%, eight percentages points down on the previous quarter. The male unemployment rate stood at 9.6% (1.3 percentage points down) and the female rate was down 0.2 percentage points, reaching 10.4%.

As regards the level of education, the greatest decrease in the unemployment rate was among people whose highest level of education completed was primary school and lower, with a decrease of one percentage point, the unemployment rate standing at 12.8%. For people who had completed secondary or intermediate education and higher education, the unemployment rate fell by 0.7 percentage points, standing at 12.2% and 6.5% respectively.

With regards to nationality, the unemployed population figure decreased among Spanish nationals by 4,600, standing at 76,200. Among foreign nationals unemployment decreased by 4,100 to stand at 25,500 people out of work.

By province, Gipuzkoa saw the greatest decrease in unemployment, with 6,100 fewer people out of work and the unemployment rate was down 1.7 percentage points, reaching 6.9%. In Bizkaia, with 60,700 people out of work, the number of unemployed fell by 2,500 and the unemployment rate decreased by 0.5 percentage points to 11.4%. In Álava, there were 100 fewer people out of work and the unemployment rate stood at 11.7%, 0.1 percentage points down on the previous quarter.

As regards the capitals, unemployment was down in all three: by 2,000 people in San Sebastián, 1,500 in Vitoria-Gasteiz and 700 in Bilbao.

According to EUROSTAT, the Statistical Office of the European Union, in August 2020 the deseasonalised unemployment rate of the European Union as a whole stood at 7.4% and that of Spain stood at 16.2%.

In the last year, the number of employed people decreased by 4.4% and the unemployment rate rose from 9.4% to 10%

The employed population in the Basque Country decreased in relation to the third quarter of 2019 by 4.4% and the unemployment rate increased by 0.6 percentage points (from 9.4% to 10%), with 2,300 being added to the unemployment figures of the Basque Country, compared to the third quarter of 2019.

97.8% of average registered workers were in work, according to ILO criteria

It is estimated that there were 856,100 registered workers for the quarter on average in the Basque Country, i.e. the number of people residing in the Basque Country who were registered for Social Security at the time of the survey. Of those, the PRA estimates that 97.8% were employed, according to criteria from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a total of 837,500 individuals.

Amongst those employed according to ILO criteria in the PRA, 69,300 people, 7.6%, were not registered in the Social Security system, either because they did not work for companies based in the Basque Country, or they belonged to public mutual societies for civil servants, or are in other situations.

30.9% of those unemployed were not registered as unemployed with the Basque Employment Institute (Lanbide)

It is estimated that there was a quarterly average of 119,800 unemployed people registered with Lanbide, i.e. people residing in the Basque Country who were registered in Lanbide at the time of the survey in any one of the categories designated for registered unemployment. Of those, 54% were unemployed according to the ILO definition (64,700 people). 30.9% of people unemployed according to the ILO definition in the PRA were not registered as unemployed with Lanbide (31,500 people), even though they may be registered under other categories of job seekers.

Repercussions of COVID-19 on the labour market in the Basque Country

Population data in relation to activity in the third quarter of 2020 have been conditioned by the appearance of COVID-19 and the measures restricting activity established by the Authorities.

The figures obtained regarding the working population and the employment rate are conditioned by the massive use of certain resources, such as temporary layoff measures known as ERTEs (Temporary Labour Force Adjustment Plans), which affect the activity, but not necessarily the status of the population in relation to the same. In fact, the majority (98.6%) of people who are subject to an ERTE remain employed because they are expected to return to work in at least 3 months or are continuing to receive more than 50% of their salary. Other palliative mechanisms affect self-employed workers, but equally do not necessarily alter their relationship with the activity.

The PRA is an ongoing survey, which enables an analysis by months and even by the 13 weeks across which our sample is evenly distributed in the third quarter. This, together with the amount of information gathered, allows us to obtain additional information for carrying out a better assessment of the situation of the Basque labour market. The information gathered regarding the work status of every person surveyed refers to the week that by sampling design corresponds to them.

The percentage of the employed population who did not work reduced by 13 percentage points throughout the quarter, from 21.4% in the first week of July to 8.4% in the last week of September

The analysis of the evolution of the percentage of employed people who have not worked in the reference week gives relevant results. In this third quarter of the year, the percentage of employed people who have not worked in the reference week is slightly higher than in the third quarters of previous years. If in previous years, for the third quarter, said percentage was between 24.7% and 27%, in the third quarter of 2020, this percentage reached 28.5%.

In this third quarter of the year the information on whether those with ongoing employment have worked or not in the reference week is affected by the holiday season. If we examine the data by week we see that in the first week of the quarter the percentage of people who had not worked was 21.4%; this percentage increases until reaching a maximum in mid-August (56.1%), from then onwards it starts to progressively decrease until reaching 8.4%.

Analysing the evolution of the different characteristics of seeking work that determine whether a person is unemployed or inactive, a notable increase was observed in the number of inactive people who are not seeking work, 7,200 more people than in the previous quarter; there was also a significant increase among those who say they are seeking work but are not available for work (+5,600) and among those who are neither available nor taking active steps to seek work (2,500 people). The only decrease was registered in the number of people looking for work but who, despite being available for work, are not taking active steps to seek work (-5,300).

For further information:

Eustat - Euskal Estatistika Erakundea / Basque Statistics Institute C/ Donostia-San Sebastián, 1 01010 Vitoria-Gasteiz Press Service: servicioprensa@eustat.es Tel: 945 01 75 62