People who are economically salaried have an increasingly narrow base on the whole population. According to the latest data from the Spanish Labour Force Survey (EPA), about 16.7 million people do not seek work for different reasons, the highest figure in history. Also, the sum of the inactive and unemployed population shows that the figures for those who did not work in the fourth quarter of 2022 (19,724,000) were very close to those in employment (20,400,000).

The growth of the inactive population in the Spanish state began to take place in 2012. Meanwhile, although the COVID-19 pandemic exceptionally inflated the numbers, after recovering the 2019 level, its rise continued in 2021 and 2022. As can be seen in the EPA, it has been particularly sharp in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Those who have had to leave work due to caring for older people, children and family members in other situations of dependence are highlighted. According to the EPA, in December last year workers were left out of the labor market for this reason 42% more than in the same month of 2019. In total, 700,000 workers are in this situation. Specifically, since 2020, 206,000 people have had to take care of other people, 90.2% of whom were women.

Factors

Out-of-wage surveillance is not a joke, as more than half (54%) of the increase in the inactive population recorded since 2019 has been a direct consequence of this cause. Moreover, those who have had to leave employment to take care of another person are not only young parents who have recently had children, as 40 per cent are over 50 years old. Among them, it can be suspected that most are workers who must take care of parents.

The demographic structure has also influenced: 44.5% (169,300 people) of the 380,000 new inactive registered since December 2019 were retired. However, the ageing of the population does not explain everything, as pensioners account for 24 per cent of the total inactive population. Another important reason is that the 30-40 year-old population that should be very large in itself, that usually has a heavy weight in labor statistics, is narrowing; that during the 1970s and 1980s fewer children were born than in the baby boom generation.

Moreover, another significant part of the increase in the inactive population recorded since 2019 is young people. There have been an increase of 166,900 people who do not seek employment because they are studying, around 44% of the increase. In particular, in the last two years this figure has increased by 6%, coinciding with phenomena such as the reduction of the job supply for young people, the drop in school leaving and the increase in specialization in studies. The proportion of people who are ill or unable to work has also increased, increasing the inactive population.

It has also had to do with the labour reform of the Spanish State last year. With the figure of "fixed discontinuities", many operators who are not working at a given time technically do not seek a new job, as they expect the companies that have hired them to call it, even if they act provisionally. Official statistics from the Spanish state also include the "inactive". In 2022, 484,663 new permanent unemployed were counted, of which about 40% were not looking for another job.

Question of method once again

The official statistics of the Government of Spain conceal an undeniable phenomenon of capitalism in crisis: the underactivity of the available workforce, or the inability to integrate the social majority into work. The latest APN survey provides a figure of 12.9% of unemployment, and although it remains one of the highest in Europe, it can create an illusion: that the rest of adults of working age and able to do so are working. This belief is far from reality: enormous amounts of permanent discontinuations, young people who extend their studies to a great many university degrees, or the case of working-class women who cannot reconcile the care of the elderly, children and dependents with paid work.

The existence of these personnel sectors is often blurred to embellish numbers, such as the one that hides dust under the carpet. They are not counted as unemployed, but as "inactive population", together with pensioners, children or people unable to work. Thus, unemployment figures seem to be under control and "things are going well". However, as this human group grows, the methodology of the Spanish State is becoming apparent.