Employment in the tourism sector grows by 5.5% in August and adds more than 151,000 new contributors compared to 2023

The positive data for the number of national insurance contributors in the tourism sector continued this summer. In August, contributors linked to tourism activities increased in absolute terms by 151,782 people, reaching a total of 2,910,948 workers. This represents an increase of 5.5% with respect to the same month the year before. In relation to the labour market of the country as a whole, tourism employment accounts for 13.8% of the total.

The change in contributor numbers was positive in all branches of tourism in August. In hotels and catering, the increase was 96,045 contributors (28,904 in accommodation services and 67,141 in food and beverage services), and in travel agencies and tour operators it reached 4,388 workers. Other tourism activities also recorded an overall increase of 51,349 employees.

Wage earners increase by 6.4%

In August, the number of employees in the tourism sector increased 6.4% compared to the same month of 2023, representing 82.5% of the total number of contributors in this sector. By branch of activity, salaried employment increased in tour operators (6.7%) and in hotels and restaurants (6.2%).

Self-employment in tourism, which represents 17.5% of the total number of contributing workers, increased by 1.4 %. A year-on-year increase of 6.5% was observed in travel agencies, while in the hotel and catering business the number of self-employed people decreased slightly (0.3%).

Employment growth in all the autonomous communities

Employment in hotels and catering and travel agencies and tour operators as a whole increased in all the autonomous communities in August. In relative terms, the year-on-year increases in Cantabria, where employment grew by 7.6%, and Extremadura, where it increased by 6%, stand out.

In absolute figures, the largest increases were in Andalusia (19,308 more contributors), Catalonia (with an increase of 15,030 contributors) and the Valencian Community (12,055 more).

Non official translation