According to the latest report issued by the Marina Alta Observatory regarding employment data in the region, the number of job seekers decreased in February by 93 people compared to January, reaching 8.809 job seekers. A figure that maintains the level of unemployment at a rate below 9.000 people, a record achieved since April 2023, and reaches the lowest number for a month of February since 2008 (7.393).
This is equivalent to a monthly drop of -1,04%, a drop in the number of claimants typical of a month of February, but which, with the exception of February 2021, had not produced such a slight drop since 2015 (-0,35 %). Despite this, this reduction compared to January is greater than the percentage decrease registered in the Valencian Community, the province of Alicante and the national count (-0,47%, -0,44% and -0,60%, respectively).
The months of February usually reflect the beginning of a seasonally positive season for employment records, after the always negative data for the month of January. On this occasion, the monthly variations in unemployment and affiliation have shown the usual behavior, with good data in the historical comparison in the case of affiliation and an improvement compared to previous months in the case of registered unemployment.
The number of people affiliated with Social Security in this month of February has increased by 865 jobs compared to January (+1,48%), breaking the negative trend of the last semester. February leaves the total number of affiliates at 59.477 and marks a new maximum number of employees in the Marina Alta in the month of February.
The historical series shows that membership usually improves in the aforementioned month. The 865 new jobs in February are above those generated just a year before (+628) and are even better if we focus on 2021 (+50). They are also more than in the last year before the pandemic, 2019, when 783 jobs were created from January to February. However, the trend is not so consistent with respect to the evolution of the unemployed. This year's data is positive, with 93 fewer people unemployed, but not as much as that of 2022, when the drop was 180 claimants or last year, so positive for the labor market in the Marina Alta, unemployment fell by February in 104 people.
