Education and training sector leads year-on-year job creation in Malaga

Surprisingly, education is the sector in Malaga province that has added the highest number of workers in one year, from October 2024 to October 2025: almost 7,500 workers have joined the workforce. It is also the sector that has had the greatest growth in relation to its size: 20.7%, almost four times more than the growth of employment in general in the province (5.6%). The number of employees in this sector, which includes everything from nurseries and schools to universities, as well as regulated and non-regulated training centres, now exceeds 43,600.

The employment boom in the education sector has undoubtedly been influenced by the opening of three private universities in Malaga (Utamed, Universidad Europea de Andalucía and UAX Mare Nostrum), the proliferation of private centres for vocational training, the growth of international schools and the opening of business schools such as ESSCA or The Valley.

The next four sectors that have added the most workers in the province in the last year are: hospitality (4,367), transport and storage (2,965), administration and support services (2,749) and construction (2,727). Trade (2,557), health and social work activities (1,669), arts, recreation and entertainment (1,137) and manufacturing (1,093) also grew by more than 1,000 employees. If we measure relative growth (in proportion to their size), the most dynamic sectors after education are transport (+12%) and arts, entertainment and recreation (+10.1%).

All other sectors are also growing, but at a more modest rate. It is worth highlighting that the information and communications branch has slowed down, despite previously experiencing a high rate of growth. It has only added 541 workers in the last 12 months, equivalent to a 3% increase. Perhaps the difficulty that technology companies are having in finding qualified workers has an impact on statistics.

According to official data from the main Andalusian statistical body, in October, Malaga continued being the province with the highest year-on-year growth in active companies: it reached 59,400, which is 1,406 more compared to October 2024. In terms of worker numbers, the province has been first in absolute terms (29,033 in the last 12 months) and second in relative growth (5.6%).

Another interesting conclusion can be drawn from the statistics: it is large companies that are driving employment in the province, while micro-SMEs are practically stagnating. Nearly half of the employment generated in the last year in Malaga (42%, to be exact) comes from companies with more than 250 employees. The rate of growth of the workforce in these companies is 9%. Companies with between 100 and 249 workers have grown by 8.2% in terms of workforce, having added 5,000 employees in the last year. On the other hand, companies with between one and two workers have only added 673 people (1.7%) and those with between three and five workers, 1,243 (2.6%).

Moreover, the increase in the number of companies is also greater in the higher employment brackets. Specifically, the largest relative rise is among companies with 100 to 249 employees, which have grown by 7.5% compared with the same month last year.