Spanish households register the largest drop in income per person among OECD countries

Spanish households recorded the largest drop in real income per head among countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) since the fourth quarter of 2019, the last full quarter before the impact of the pandemic, according to data from the organization.

Spanish disposable income fell by 7.85% since the fourth quarter of 2019.

Among the 21 OECD countries whose data are available, in addition to Spain, only five other economies recorded a lower level of disposable income than before the pandemic: Portugal (-4.14%), the United Kingdom (-3.94%), Finland (-1.80%), the Czech Republic (-1.68%) and Denmark (-1.30%).

In the OECD as a whole, disposable income compared to the situation at the end of 2019 showed in the third quarter of 2022 an improvement of 1.87%, with Poland (+7.16%) and Slovenia (+6.53%) as the countries with the greatest gains, ahead of Australia (+4.55%), Hungary (+4.26%) and Canada (+4.09%).

“Real household income per capita exceeded pre-pandemic levels in the third quarter of 2022 in all OECD countries except the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom,” the organization said.

Real disposable income per capita represents the total income received after taxes and social contributions, including monetary and social benefits such as unemployment.

MORE UNEMPLOYMENT IN JANUARY

In addition to the fall in real income in Spain, there was a rise in unemployment.

According to data published Thursday by the Ministry of Labor, the number of unemployed registered in public employment services offices rose by 70,744 in January compared to the previous month.

January’s rise was four times higher than that experienced in the same month of 2022 when unemployment increased by 17,173 people.

After January’s spike, driven mainly by the services sector, the total unemployed again surpassed the 2.9 million mark.

Unemployment increased among both sexes, although more so among women.

Specifically, female unemployment rose by 49,937 women (2.9%), compared to a rise in male unemployment of 20,807 men (1.8%).

By age, unemployment among young people under 25 rose by almost 4% in January, with 7,753 more unemployed than at the end of December, while unemployment among people aged 25 and over increased by 62,991 (2.4%).

Likewise, Social Security lost an average of 215,047 contributors with respect to the previous month (-1.06%) due to the end of the Christmas campaign, which was particularly noticeable in the hotel and catering and commerce sectors, with the loss of 43,000 and 40,000 employed persons, respectively.

The decrease in affiliates was greater than that experienced in 2022 (197,750 employed).

With information from LGI