If unemployment fell in the Canary Islands to 14.5% at the close of 2022, the data for the island of Lanzarote are even better, since its unemployment rate is 13.4%, according to the Canary Islands Institute of Statistics (ISTAC), based on data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
In one year, unemployment in Lanzarote has gone from 21.4% to 13.4%, a decrease of 8 percentage points, as tourist activity has been returning to normal after two years of pandemic. To find similar data, one would have to go back to the beginning of 2008.
However, unemployment on the island has been reduced much more among men than among women, since the former have an unemployment rate of 11%, while the latter have an unemployment percentage of 16%.
At the end of 2021, with much higher unemployment, the rates were very similar for both sexes and slightly better among women, who had an unemployment rate of 21.35%. Unemployment then reached 21.46% among men.
The largest differential since 2004
To find a larger differential than the one that has been made visible at the end of 2022 in Lanzarote, one has to go back to the year 2004, in which the male employment rate was 7.04%, while women bore an unemployment rate of 12.39%.
An analysis of the historical behavior of unemployment rates on the island since the beginning of the century, published by the Lanzarote Data Center, shows that female employment withstands crises better, during which unemployment rates between both sexes tend to equalize. However, the years in which high levels of job creation occur favor male employment more.
However, this did not happen in 2019, a reference year to analyze the recovery of the island's economic indicators. That year the unemployment rates of both sexes were practically identical, 17.42% among men and 17.41% among women.
