Social Security affiliation remains at record levels, with 21.6 million contributors in August

Employment remains at its highest levels ever for a month of August, with more than 21.6 million employed in both the seasonally adjusted and the original series. If we discount seasonality and the calendar effect, the labour market has 476,299 more contributors than a year ago, reaching a total of 21,672,249 registered workers.

This is 29,836 more people in work than in July, slightly more than last year, and 308,842 more so far in 2025. This figure is an increase of more than 1.86 million contributors since December 2021, before the entry into force of the labour reform.

The average number of contributors (original series) is also well above 21.6 million at 21,666,203. In the last year, the number of contributors has risen by 476,801. Compared with July, this represents 199,300 fewer contributors (-0.91%), which is similar to the behaviour of other years in August.

The daily series, meanwhile, also remained above 21.6 million throughout the month.

"The labour market continues to perform favourably, with remarkable data on the quantity and quality of employment. We have over 21.6 million contributors, a very positive figure, which includes outstanding growth in sectors with a high productive impact", explained the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz. "We can see how the Information and Communications and Scientific and Technical Activities sectors are once again performing very positively, both in the general regime and in the self-employed regime, gaining weight month after month in our economy," she added.

Young people and women

The number of contributors is growing especially among the under-30s and the over-55s. Employment among young people has increased by 25% and among older people by 23.3% since before the labour reform, well above the average employment growth rate of 11.3% in this period.

In the case of young people, this increase in employment is accompanied by an improvement in their contribution bases, which are growing above average. In fact, in the 25-29 age bracket, the increase has been +32.2% and +31.9% in the under-24s since 2019, compared to an average increase of +23.4% over that period.

The improvement in employment among self-employed individuals under 30 and over 55 is also very significant, reaching +11.1% and +12.5%, respectively, since the year before the labour reform, compared to an average growth of 2.7% in self-employment.

On the other hand, the number of women affiliated to Social Security remains at a historical high, with 10,168,156 (+215,750 in the last year).

Highly productive sectors

In the last twelve months, the number of contributors has increased in the vast majority of the sectors of the General Regime. This increase is even more significant in Transport and Storage (+8.1%); Arts, Entertainment and Recreation (+4.2%), Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (+4.1%), Construction (+4%), Education (+3.7%) and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities (+3.3%).

The number of self-employed workers remains at record levels, above 3.4 million (RETA and SETA), with 3,405,711 self-employed workers, 34,361 more than a year ago.

Since August 2024, self-employment in the Information and Communications and Professional Scientific and Technical Activities sectors has increased by 10.4% and 4.6%, respectively. The two sectors together account for more than 24,000 new self-employed workers, that is 69.9% of the employment created in this Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers in the last year.

Higher employment growth than neighbouring countries

Employment in Spain (+9.8%) continues to grow at a higher rate than in other European economies (Italy, +6.3%; France, +1.8%; Germany, +1.6%), with reference to data from the end of 2021, before the entry into force of the labour reform.

In terms of the quality of employment since the start of the labour reform, there are almost 3.9 million more workers with permanent contracts, an increase of 35.3% since December 2021.

The weight of temporary workers stands at 13.5%, down from 32.6% in 2018. This improvement is even more remarkable among workers under 30 years of age, who have a temporary employment rate of 23.9%, compared to more than 55.2% seven years ago.

Non official translation