The cost derived from the payment of benefits for common diseases has shot in Spain 78.5% since 2019, which represents about 1% of GDP, according to estimates that the Bank of Spain collected in its annual report. The document, disseminated on Tuesday, raises the expenditure at low to 16,480 million if payments for professional contingencies are also account.
The institution governed by José Luis Escrivá warns that there are “growing signs of tension” in the labor market, such as the increase in the percentage of companies that declare that the lack of labor limits its activity and.
On this point, he assures that together with the Netherlands, Germany or Sweden. No obstate, comparable spending in these countries was between 1.5% and 2% of GDP in 2022.
The agency states that Spain is one of the countries that has experienced a greater increase in expense in IT since 2019. Thus, with comparable data until 2022, spending in Spain in casualties due to illness has increased around three tenths of GDP, a figure similar to that of the Netherlands, Sweden or Slovenia. On the other hand, in other economies, such as France or Italy, this expense ratio remained relatively stable in the same period.
In the case of companies, the institution recalls that IT absences have both direct cost, related to the economic benefit for low workers, as indirect, linked to the template settings that could be forced to carry out in order to maintain their activity.
In this sense, it estimates that, as well as the possible accessories to this benefit collected in agreement, 62% has been fired between 2019 and 2024, from 2,840 million to 4,613 million euros.
To carry out this estimate, the institution combines the data of the quarterly labor cost survey (etc.) with the employee data of the Active Population Survey (EPA). However, he warns that this calculation excludes the salaries of agriculture, fishing and forestry, “so it would mean a lower level.”
The direct cost assumed by the companies in the absences by IT consists of an economic benefit of 60% of the regulatory base between days 4 and 15 of low, the social security contributions and the possible complements and improvements included potentially from the first day of decline if so established by the collective agreement of application or the employer voluntarily decides.
Possible causes of the rebound in it
Within the framework of its annual report 2024, the agency governed by José Luis Escrivá performs a first analysis of the increase in casualties by IT in Spain. It points to possible causes that may have influenced this rebound, the aging of the population, the “congestion” of the health services, I about the working conditions demanded.
It also considers that the economic cycle has been influenced in this phenomenon, since historically it has been observed that the incidence of IT is greater during periods of economic expansion.
The true fact, according to the report of the Bank of Spain, is that the casualties for IT have increased and in addition to personal characteristics, activity sector and regions.
According to EPA data, the proportion of LOW workers by IT has increased from 2.7%in 2019 to 4.4%in 2024 and, although in other European countries there have also been increases, in Spain the level in 2023 was higher (4.1%) to that of France (3.6%), Germany (3.1%) or Italy (1.3%).
Before pandemic, the incidence of IT was greater among women (3.3% compared to 2.2% of men), people of Spanish nationality (2.9% compared to 1.7% of the foreign population) and older workers (5%, more than double than in the groups of lower age workers).
In the last five years, the institution points out, there has been a generalized rebound from the absences for IT in all population groups. Thus, these casualties have increased around 1.5 points in men and 2 points in women.
By age groups, the increase has been 2.5 points in those over 55, of 1.6 points in the group of 30 to 54 years, and 1.1 points in those under 30 years. For its part, the rise has been greater in national employed (1.8 points) than at foreigners (1.4 points).
In response to the activity sector or the residence region, the Bank of Spain also appreciates a fairly generalized pattern of increased itals by IT, although with some nuances. On the one hand, extractive industries and energy supply activities experienced a decrease in their casualties by IT between 2019 and 2023. On the opposite side, increases in agriculture, manufactures, construction, trade and transport, as well as the strong increase in water supply and sanitation stand out.
In the field of the Autonomous Communities, the Bank of Spain highlights the cases of the Basque Country, Galicia, Cantabria and Murcia, which led the ranking of increases, far superior to those observed in Asturias, Madrid and, above all, Navarra.
As regards the evolution of the population’s health status, the institution, citing data from the CIS, points out that, between 2019 and July 2024 there was an increase of more than 17 points in the percentage of people who declared having a chronic health problem.
Vacancies: Another problem that tension the labor market
Together with the expense in IT, the Bank of Spain warns that the problem of vacancies to cover is also introducing tensions in the Spanish labor market.
According to a survey of the institution, between 2021 and 2024.
This shortage of workers is especially given in hospitality and construction, where 64% and 56% of companies, respectively, declare to be affected by the lack of labor.
For the institution, the increase in vacancies may be due to the fact that the skills of people seeking employment do not always coincide with those demanded by companies, which generates a mismatch in the labor market.
It also considers that it may also be due to cyclic elements: in an expansive phase, the number of companies that demand new jobs increases, but, at the same time, the minimum wage that the unemployed are willing to accept is also raised, which leads to an inverse relationship between the unemployment rate and that of vacancies.
For the Bank of Spain, new information is required, such as the one that can provide job search portals, to obtain a diagnosis on the relative contribution of cyclic and structural factors to the dynamics of unemployment and vacancies.
The INE is already working on a future project to complete the vacancies information that it provides with data portals data.
For its part, the Public State Employment Service (SEPE) wants to improve all the information available on offers and employment vacancies through the implementation of a state registry in which private employment agencies, temporary labor companies (ETT) and employment portals have the “obligation” to dump their data.
