Becoming self employed in Spain has never been so popular. A recent study by organisation ATA, the National Federation of Associations of Self-Employed Workers, shows that, just a month away from the end of 2013, the number of people registered as self employed in Spain has gone up by 17,944 since the end of 2012.
2013 bucks the trend in terms of self-employed workers
In contrast, in the years between 2008-2012, the amount of autónomos listed on the tax register decreased by nearly 400,000.
I can think of several possible theories for why this might be. The glass-half-empty point of view says that businesses are taking advantage of the desperate economic situation of many in order to hire people for whom they don’t have to pay holidays, social security, sick leave or anything of the like. The glass-half-full point of view suggests that this is perhaps a sign that the economy’s starting to pick back up.
In any case, one thing is obvious – with in increasing amount of people registered as self-employed in Spain, it’s going to get harder for the government to ignore autónomos rights to things like unemployment benefit. I’ll be at the front of the picket lines for things like reducing taxes for low-wage self-employed earners and generally opening up the economy this year.
Text and photos by Penelope
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