Historical data in the Spanish economy: female employment grows to almost ten million

The year 2023 has closed in record: there is almost ten billion employed women (9,923), figures that have been key to consolidating the number of Spanish workers above 21 million. These results are achieved after a decade of growth, with the exception of 2020, a year marked by the covid-19 pandemic.

Data from the last quarter of the Active Population Survey (EPA) show a record of 21,246 million employed people. It translates into an annual increase of 783,000 workers, in which Women provide 437,000 jobs55.8% of the registered increase.

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Now, according to EPA data, 46.7% of jobs are occupied by womenwhich have narrowed to 1.4 million employed people a gap with men that is on track to continue narrowing.

Advances in employment in the last decade show a increase of more than 3 million workers. Thus, if in 2013 there were 7,828 million employed women, 2023 has closed with 9,923 million. The differences with men, however, seem to remain along the same lines: in 2013, there were 9,306 employed men, around one and a half million more than their female colleagues. Now, in the last period of 2023, They represent 11,323 of Spanish workers (1.42 million more than women).

It is not something that is surprising, since they have higher unemployment rates. The equality indicators published by the Government in February 2023 show 14.61% unemployment among women and 11.32% among men (a gender gap of 3.29 points between both sexes). Disagreements by age, the data show a greater gender gap between men and women aged 35 to 39, with a 5.05 point difference.

This last quarter of 2023, differences remain: 2,830 million unemployed in Spain, of which 1,530 are women. It translates into 13.36% unemployment for women, compared to 10.30% for men.

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The 2020 Salary Structure Survey, the latest available, shows an average salary of 27,643 euros for men, while that of women remains at 22,467 euros, more than 5,000 euros below. Data from the Ministry of Equality show that the difference has been reduced by 4.3 points in the last ten years, but it has not been enough to make up for the still notable differences between both genders. The Active Population Survey also reflects this gap: in 2022, the The average salary for women was 1,941 euros per month, while that of men reached 2,303.5 euros.

According to these data, 32% of men earned 2,373 euros or more monthly in 2022compared to 27.2% of women, while the opposite occurred in low salaries: 40.0% of women had a salary of less than 1,440 euroscompared to 20.7% of men.