Malaga province exceeds 800,000 employed persons for the first time
Industry joins services in job creation in the third quarter and the total number of unemployed drops by 5,500 to 114,300
The Malaga province labour market has reached a new milestone. According to the EPA active population survey, which reviews figures on a quarterly basis, the province gained 25,100 employed persons in the third quarter of the year (July-September), which brings the total number to 816,900 - an all-time high. Never before have so many people worked in the province.
The increase in employment is also the highest for this period since 2022, when the number of employed grew by 27,000. In 2024, the rise was limited to 3,700 and in 2023, to 10,000.
In percentage terms, this implies an increase in employment of 3.17%, which is much higher than the rise recorded in the country (0.53%): 118,400 more employed people in the third quarter at national level, reaching a total of 22.39 million in the whole of Spain.
It is important to note that the growth in Malaga is not solely attributed to the services sector, which accounts for 23,500 jobs created, to almost 693,000. However, industry has added 2,600 workers in the third quarter, reaching 48,400. At the same time, the construction sector remains at 59,100 employed, while agriculture lost 1,000 workers, dropping to 16,600.
What has the employment growth looked like in the past 12 months? Currently, there are 41,200 more employed people than a year ago. The services sector has 49,400 employed persons more than six months ago, while industry has added 8,900 workers. This compensates for the loss of 12,700 workers in construction in the last year and the 4,300 in agriculture.
Unemployed
The number of unemployed dropped by 5,500 in the third quarter, to 114,300 registered in September. What is concerning is that this reduction is entirely due to the fall in unemployment among men (-6,700, to 50,700), compared with the increase in the number of unemployed women, which stood at 63,700 in September.
This brings the unemployment rate in Malaga down from 13.15% at the end of the second quarter to 12.28% in the third quarter.
This drop in the unemployment rate is due to an unusual situation: the number of people employed has grown faster than the total workforce, which includes people who are able to work and are looking for a job. In the last quarter, employment increased by 25,000, while the active population (those working or willing to work) only grew by 19,700. In other words, the job market was able to absorb the rise in the workforce.
This contrasts with the situation in the country as a whole, where the 178,500 more active workers in the quarter far outstripped the increase in employment, which was limited to 118,400. As a result, unemployment in the country has risen by 60,100 people over the past three months, reaching 2.61 million unemployed. However, compared with the same period in 2024, there are 140,900 fewer unemployed.
Unemployment rates better over the quarter than the year
Another thing to point out is that Malaga is the only province in Andalucía where the number of unemployed has fallen over the past year. In the region as a whole, unemployment has increased from 618,600 in the second quarter to 650,900 in the third. This is because in Granada there are 9,000 more unemployed, in Seville 8,500, in Almeria 5,900, in Cordoba 5,600, in Huelva 3,600, in Jaén 3,100 and in Cadiz 2,300.
However, Malaga performs worse in the annual unemployment growth rate, which has increased by 7,900 people. Only two provinces recorded higher absolute increases: Las Palmas (8,300 more unemployed) and Murcia (9,800 more unemployed).
As a result, Malaga's unemployment rate is now higher than it was 12 months ago, when it stood at 12.06%.
Meanwhile, Spain's national unemployment rate is currently 10.45%, slightly above the previous quarter (10.29%) but lower than a year ago.
