| Post: | Secretary of State for Employment |
| Native Name: | Secretario de Estado de Empleo |
| Flag: | Logotipo de la Secretaría de Estado de Empleo.png |
| Flagsize: | 300px |
| Insignia: | Escudo de España (mazonado).svg |
| Insigniasize: | 100px |
| Insigniacaption: | Coat of Arms used by the Government |
| Incumbent: | Joaquín Pérez Rey |
| Incumbentsince: | January 15, 2020 |
| Style: | The Most Excellent (formal) Madam Secretary of State (informal) |
| Department: | Ministry of Labour and Social Economy Secretariat of State for Employment and Social Economy |
| Nominator: | Labour Minister |
| Appointer: | Monarch |
| First: | Manuel Núñez Pérez |
| Precursor: | Under Secretary of Labour |
| Formation: | March 6, 1981 |
| Website: | www.mitramiss.gob.es |
The Secretary of State for Employment and Social Economy is a senior minister of the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy responsible for carrying out the government policy on collective and individual labour relations, working conditions, unemployment benefits, promotion of employment, job training, social economy, and promotion of self-employment. It is also responsible for managing the European Union funds of the European Social Fund.[1]
The Secretariat of State for Employment is structured through five departments, two directorates-general focused on all kind of labour issues, two deputy directorates-general for the managing of the European Social Fund and a deputy directorate-general for statistics and studies. As of January 2020, the Secretary of State managed a budget of €24.5 billion.
The current Secretary of State is Joaquín Pérez Rey, a University of Castilla–La Mancha professor and head of the University's Labour and Social Security Law Department.[2]
The Secretariat of State was created in 1981 with the name of Secretariat of State for Employment and Labour Relations.[3] This Secretariat of State provisionally assumed all the departments and powers of the defunct Ministry of Labour and specifically the functions of the Undersecretariat of Labour, being integrated into the new Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Security. That same year, Health and Work were separated by creating the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and degrading the Secretariats of State to Undersecretariats, assuming the powers of this Secretariat of State, which was suppressed.[4]
From 1985 to 2010, this department was maintained as an undersecretariat but with the denomination of "General Secretariat". It was in 2010, during the premiership of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, that the department was promoted again to Secretariat of State. The socialist government designed a structure for the secretariat that nowadays still exists, with the Directorate-General for Labour and the Directorate General for the Social Economy, Self-Employment and Corporate Social Responsibility.[5] The powers over the administration of the European Social Fund have varied constantly.
In 2020 it was renamed as Secretariat of State for Employment and Social Economy.
The Secretariat of State consists in four departments of different rank and a Cabinet:
It is responsible for the labour relations and employment policies.
It is responsible for the government policies on social economy, self-employment and CSR.
It is the national authority responsible for the European Social Fund, the Youth Employment Initiative, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund and the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived.
It is responsible for the design of the programs to which the European funds of the European Social Fund will be applied, its control and evaluation.
It is responsible for the statistic studies of the Ministry and for making analysis and reports about labour matters.
The Secretariat of State has a Cabinet for the personal assistance and support to the Secretary of State.
From Secretariat of State depends the following agencies and bodies:
| No. | Image | Name | Term of office | Ministers serving under: | Prime Minister appointed by: | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Began | Ended | Days of service | |||||
| 1º | Manuel Núñez Pérez | 6 March 1981 | 19 December 1981 | Jesús Sancho Rof | Adolfo Suárez | ||
| 2º | María Luz Rodríguez Fernández | 30 October 2010 | 31 December 2011 | Valeriano Gómez | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero | ||
| 3º | Engracia Hidalgo Tena | 31 December 2011 | 27 June 2015 | Fátima Báñez | Mariano Rajoy | ||
| 4º | Juan Pablo Riesgo Figuerola-Ferreti | 27 June 2015 | 19 June 2018 | ||||
| 5º | Yolanda Valdeolivas García | 19 June 2018 | 15 January 2020 | Magdalena Valerio | Pedro Sánchez | ||
| 6º | Joaquín Pérez Rey | 15 January 2020 | Incumbent | Yolanda Díaz | |||