Press Release 22/10/2021

SURVEY ON POPULATION IN RELATION TO ACTIVITY. III/2021

The number of people in work was up by more than 9,000 and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.9% in the third quarter of 2021 in the Basque Country

The number of households with all active individuals in work rose by 7,400

Data from the third quarter of 2021 on the labour market in the Basque Country shows 9,300 more people in work and 15,900 fewer unemployed people than in the previous quarter, according to Eustat data. There were an estimated 92,700 unemployed people this quarter and the figure for people in work rose to 953,600, 1% more than in the second quarter of the year.

The unemployment rate of the Basque Country stood at 8.9%, 1.4 percentage points down on the second quarter of 2021, a rate not seen since 2010. As a result of the evolution in the employed and unemployed population, the activity rate stood at 55.8% in the third quarter of 2021, falling 0.5 percentage points in respect of the previous quarter.

By province and compared to the previous quarter, Bizkaia experienced the biggest upturn in employment, with 5,000 more people in work, followed by Álava with 3,000 more and Gipuzkoa with an increase of 1,400. Regarding the capitals, there were 2,800 more people in work in Vitoria-Gasteiz and 2,100 more in San Sebastián, whereas in Bilbao there were 500 fewer.

In terms of gender, the highest rise in employment was among men, with 6,600 more in work than the previous quarter, whilst the number of women in work increased by 2,700. With regards to nationality, the number of foreign nationals in work was up by 5,900, whilst the number of Spanish nationals in work increased by 3,400.

Employment rose in all activity sectors except industry

The working population in the Basque country increased by 8,600 in the services sector, by 1,900 in Construction and by 400 in the primary sector, whilst in the construction sector it fell by 1,700.

The employment rate, calculated as the percentage of people in work aged 16 to 64 over the total for these ages, rose 0.6 percentage points compared to the previous quarter, standing at 68.3%. This figure reached 71.4% for men and 65.2% for women.

With regard to level of education completed, the greatest increase in the employment rate was recorded among people with secondary or intermediate education (+1.7 percentage points), standing at 60.7%. For those educated to primary school level or lower, the employment rate rose by 0.4 points to 60.2%. Lastly, the employment rate among people who had completed higher education fell by 0.2 points to stand at 82.9%.

As regards nationality, the highest employment rate was recorded amongst Spanish nationals, with 69.8%, whereas for foreign nationals it stood at 55.3% (+0.2 and +3.6 percentage points, respectively).

By province Álava had the highest employment rate, at 69.9%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points compared to the previous quarter. Gipuzkoa came second with 69.7% and a fall of 0.2 points; and, lastly, in Bizkaia, the employment rate rose by 0.9 percentage points to stand at 66.9%.

In almost six out of every ten households all active individuals were employed

In the third quarter of 2021 it was estimated that there were 902,200 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, 7,400 families more than the previous quarter; furthermore, households where all active individuals were unemployed stood at 33,500, 2,400 fewer households than in the previous quarter. The number of households without active individuals increased by 4,500.

The third quarter of 2021 revealed an unemployment rate of 8.9%, 1.4 points down on the previous quarter (10.3%)

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 92,700 in the third quarter of the year, 15,900 fewer than in the previous quarter, which was a drop of 14.6%. The number of unemployed men, 48,200, was down 7,400 (-13.3%), whilst the number of unemployed women decreased by 8,400 (-15.8%), reaching a total of 44,600 for the quarter.

The data for the third quarter of 2021 revealed an unemployment rate of 8.9%, 1.4 percentage points down on the previous quarter. The male unemployment rate stood at 8.8% (-1.3 percentage points) and the female rate was also down 1.6 percentage points, reaching 8.9%.

As regards the level of education, the largest unemployment rate decrease was among people educated to primary school level or lower, -2.2 percentage points, the unemployment rate standing at 11.6%. For people who had completed secondary and intermediate education, the unemployment rate dropped 1.9 percentage points to 10.6%. Lastly, the unemployment rate among people who had completed higher education fell by 0.8 percentage points to stand at 5.8%.

With regards to nationality, the unemployed population figure decreased among Spanish nationals by 9,900, to 71,100. Among foreign nationals it fell by 6,100, to 21,600 people out of work.

By province, in Bizkaia, the number of people out of work fell by 8,500 and the unemployment rate dropped by 1.5 percentage points, standing at 9.9%. In Gipuzkoa, with 24,100 people out of work, the number of unemployed fell by 4,200 and the unemployment rate increased by 1.2 percentage points to 7%. In Álava, there were 3,100 fewer people out of work and the unemployment rate reached 9.2%, 1.9 percentage points down on the previous quarter.

As regards the capitals, unemployment was down in all three. Bilbao saw the greatest decrease in unemployment, with 3,100 fewer people out of work, followed by Vitoria-- Gasteiz with 2,700 fewer. Lastly, unemployment fell by 1,700 in San Sebastián .

According to EUROSTAT, the Statistical Office of the European Union, in August 2021 the deseasonalised unemployment rate of the European Union as a whole stood at 6.8% and that of Spain stood at 14%.

In the last year, the number of employed people increased by 3.6% and the unemployment rate dropped from 10.1% to 8.9%.

The employed population in the Basque Country increased by 3.6% in relation to the third quarter of 2020 and the unemployment rate decreased by 1.2 percentage points (from 10.1% to 8.9%), with 11,000 fewer people unemployed in the Basque Country compared to the third quarter of 2020.

98.4% of average registered workers were in work, according to ILO criteria

It is estimated that there were 874,400 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 98.4% were employed, according to criteria from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a total of 860,100 individuals.

Amongst those employed according to ILO criteria in the PRA, 79,500 people, 8.3%, 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 because they are in other situations.

34.1% of those unemployed were not registered as unemployed with the Basque Employment Institute (Lanbide)

It is estimated that there was a quarterly average of 102,000 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, 57.3% were unemployed according to the ILO definition (58,400 people). 34.1% of people unemployed according to the ILO definition in the PRA were not registered as unemployed with Lanbide (31,600 people), even though they may have been registered under other categories of job seekers.

For further information:

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