Santa Cruz repeats leadership in October with 41% of the contracts signed in Tenerife

For the second time since the beginning of the pandemic, and consecutively, the capital of Tenerife surpassed the 7,000 contracts barrier.

Santa Cruz again accounted for more than 4 out of every 10 contracts signed in Tenerife in October. This was explained by the second deputy mayor and councilor for Economic Promotion, Evelyn Alonso, who said that “the labor situation report prepared by the Development Society points out that this month the capital of Tenerife again concentrates the largest number of contracts on the island and that is explained, in large part, by the economic diversification of the capital municipality and, particularly, by the lower dependence on the tourism sector, compared to the rest of the island territory”.

In this regard, the councilor stressed that “in recent months, coinciding with the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the weight of hiring in Santa Cruz compared to the rest of the Island has been increasing steadily, bringing together more than 37% of the contracts signed in Tenerife, and in September and October it reached 41%, something that had not happened since the beginning of the historical series in May 2005”.

Evelyn Alonso also detailed that “Santa Cruz closed the month of October with 7,120 contracts, which represents a decrease of 0.9%, that is, 67 fewer contracts than in September” and reported that “for the second time since the beginning of the pandemic, and consecutively, the capital of Tenerife has surpassed the barrier of 7,000 contracts, which indicates that we are facing a positive trend, as a result of the reactivation of activity”.

On the other hand, the councilor stressed that “in terms of occupations, those with the highest number of contracts are cleaning personnel with 14% of the total, followed by transport workers, salespeople in stores and warehouses and postal service employees, all between 5% and 7%” and pointed out that “in this context it is noteworthy that the hiring of waiters, for example, only represents 3.5% of the total contracts signed in October in Santa Cruz”.

Regarding the figures of unemployed people, the labor situation report prepared by the Development Society of the capital city of Tenerife indicates that “the number of unemployed people increased by 400 in Santa Cruz in October with respect to September, which means an increase of 1.6%, and which places the total number of unemployed people in the capital city of Tenerife at 25,290 people”.

The councilor also explained that “the situation in Santa Cruz is worrying, but it is true that the increase in the number of unemployed people in October compared to September is less than that recorded in Tenerife and the Canary Islands, where increases of 3.3% and 3.2%, respectively, were reached”. Likewise, Evelyn Alonso remarked that “the number of people registered in the Canary Employment Service as job seekers in Santa Cruz represents 22.3% of the total for Tenerife, which means the lowest weight of unemployed people in the capital out of the total for Tenerife in the whole study series”.

“As for the year-on-year data, we are facing a growth in unemployment figures in Santa Cruz of 12.97% compared to October 2019, but we are also far from the highs reached in April and May 2013, when there were practically 30.000 people unemployed in the capital,” said Alonso, who asserted that “the possibility of ERTEs has much to do with this maintenance in the number of unemployed people, where according to our own estimates, the number of people affected by ERTEs in Santa Cruz is close to 14,134 people, that is, 17% of the total of the entire Canary Islands.”

Likewise, disaggregating the unemployment data by gender, the labor situation report points out that “it is still women who, in greater proportion, are present on the unemployment lists with respect to men, 52% compared to 48% of men, a situation that has not changed with respect to the period prior to the confinement”.

Finally, Evelyn Alonso stressed that “from the Consistory we are monitoring the whole situation, while trying to minimize the impact of this crisis by promoting the revival of consumption and awareness to purchase in local commerce” and concluded that “currently the situation of uncertainty is very high and it is difficult to make an estimate for the next month.