Changes

During the first months of the pandemic, particularly from March to May 2020, the sales, services and trade sector, which includes commerce, financial services, advanced services (high-value added and high quality specialised services whose main resource is knowledge) and personal services, registered a loss of staff evidenced by the drop in the amount of workers affiliated to the Social Security system (see the map on the ''[[:File:Monthly Spain_Monthly-change -in -the -amount -of -workers -affiliated -to -the -Social -Security system -System-in -sales, services --sevices-and -trade -during -the pandemic-pandemic_2019-2020_map_18585_eng.jpg|Monthly change in the amount of workers affiliated to the Social Security system in sales, services and trade during the pandemic]]''). Just 26% of sales, services and trade companies continued to work with no remarkable disruptions throughout the period in which the state of alarm was in force, whilst 32% reported that they were forced to close, and the rest continued to operate yet a reduced level of activity was to be introduced (survey carried out by the National Statistics Institute entitled ''Business [https://www.ine.es/dynt3/inebase/es/index.htm?type=pcaxis&path=/COVID/ice/p01/&file=pcaxis&dh=0&capsel=0Business confidence indicators. Opinion module on COVID-19'')]. The reduction in the amount of affiliated workers was especially relevant in some regions, such as the Balearic Islands (Illes Balears), the Canary Islands (Canarias), the Region of Valencia (Comunitat Valenciana), the Region of Murcia (Región de Murcia) and Andalusia (Andalucía), where trade accounts for a significant part of the economy. Whilst the Region of Murcia (Región de Murcia) and Andalusia (Andalucía) began to see some signs of recovery from the summer of 2020 onwards, the Balearic Islands (Illes Balears) and the Canary Islands (Canarias) returned to the recruitment cycle that existed prior to the pandemic, yet with much lower figures. As indicated in the [https://www.mites.gob.es/ficheros/ministerio/estadisticas/documentos/Nota_impacto_COVID_Diciembre-2020.pdf report on the impact of COVID-19 ] carried out by the Ministry of Work and Social Economy, the service sector was slow to recover.