SELF-EMPLOYED workers have fallen drastically in number in the first quarter of 2009, with Madrid, the Canary islands and the Comunidad Valenciana seeing the greatest decrease.

In total, 65,919 workers have come off the social security system throughout Spain.

The Comunidad Valenciana has the worst record with a drop of 2.9 per cent, followed by Madrid and the Canary islands with a fall of 2.4 per cent.

Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha, La Rioja and Catalunya are close behind, with the least-affected region being the Basque Country.

Catalunya has seen 12,329 self-employed workers give up their jobs due to lack of trade in the first three months of this year, followed closely by 10,333 in the Comunidad Valenciana and around 9,000 in Andalucía and Madrid.

Also in the past year, the number of redundancies has multiplied by 15, statistics show.

Although many firms facing mass redundancies have negotiated terms with workers and unions, figures reveal that the number of non-negotiated settlements has increased by 29 times since spring 2008.