Spain reaches new record of 22.3 million workers but the fall in unemployment stagnates

Every year, the labour market enters summer with a strong increase in employment and significant reductions in unemployment.

However, this May, employment faces the summer with a new record of registered workers after Social Security reached a peak for another month, achieving 22,337,806 workers for the first time. This is thanks to the surge in the hospitality sector, which accounted for almost three out of every ten new jobs.

At the same time, however, the decline in unemployment has lost momentum.

This May's surge in employment follows the unprecedented figures from Semana Santa, which pushed the number of registered workers above 22 million for the first time. This boom typically wanes as the tourist season progresses.

Despite this, Social Security recorded its second-best May on record, gaining 231,975 members, a 1.05% increase over the previous month. One has to go back to May 2018 to find such strong figures.

The hospitality sector accounts for a large part of the job growth in May, adding 67,257 contributors to the general and self-employed schemes, a 3.47% increase compared to April. Catalonia and the Balearic Islands together added almost 100,000 new jobs, concentrating the monthly increase in employment.

However, the decline in registered unemployment lost momentum in May. It fell by only 36,323 people, 1.54% less than in April. May witnessed the smallest decrease since 2012, when it fell by 30,113 people (excluding May 2020, when unemployment rose at the height of the Covid-19 crisis).

The total number of unemployed stood at 2,320,721, the lowest level for a May since 2007. This figure would rise to 3.07 million unemployed if the number of seasonal workers in April (the last month for which data is available) were included.

The sharp drop in registered unemployment in May was driven by the services sector, where the number of unemployed people fell by 29,829 (-1.74%). In the other sectors, unemployment also fell, although with more modest figures: industry saw a decrease of 2,665 unemployed people (-1.46%); construction 2,304 (-1.42%); and agriculture 1,628 (-2.26%).

Furthermore, registered unemployment decreased in all regions compared to the previous month, especially in Andalucía (-9,125 unemployed), Catalonia (-6,900 unemployed) and Madrid (-3,834 people).

In seasonally adjusted terms, unemployment rose by 9,755 people and Social Security added 63,737 people, chaining 64 consecutive months of increases, to 22.1 million employed.

The labour market achieved another milestone this May, as unemployment among young people under 25 fell below the 165,000 mark for the first time after a total of 4,738 people left unemployment. This has brought the total number of unemployed young people to 164,955.

Unemployment among women fell by 20,316 people, 1.43% less than in April, with a total of 1,404,110 unemployed, the lowest figure for a May since 2008. In terms of Social Security registration, the number of women approached 10.6 million, 47.5% of the total.

Amid the extraordinary regularisation process, foreigners accounted for almost half of the new jobs in May, gaining 111,301 contributors compared to April (+3.4%), reaching a new high of 3,359,548 employed.

Non-nationals now represent 15% of all contributors to the Social Security system, helping reduce the number of registered unemployed. Specifically, there were 3,673 fewer unemployed foreigners in May compared to April, bringing the total to 337,858.

In May, almost 31,000 people signed more than one permanent contract, according to data from Randstad, to carry out temporary activities. This sets the conditions for more unstable permanent employment compared to what existed before the labour reform.

A total of 1,323,719 contracts were registered in the fifth month of the year, 0.4% less than in May 2025. Of all, 572,061 were permanent contracts: 234,774 full-time contracts, 5% more than in May last year; 135,409 part-time (+9.1%); and 201,878 fixed intermittent (-1.5%).