The number of national insurance contributors surpasses 22 million in March in seasonally adjusted terms

The number of national insurance contributors in seasonally adjusted terms exceeded 22 million for the first time, standing at 22,010,532. The labour market has added 523,579 workers in the last year, and 80,274 in the last month alone, all discounting the calendar effect.

The figures were also record high in terms of averages. Social Security registered 21,882,147 workers, with 524,501 more employed people than a year ago and 211,510 more in the last month alone, making it the best month of March since records began. The daily contributor figure remained above 21.9 million from 16 to 30 March.

"We are transforming our country's labour market: we have surpassed the historic milestone of 22 million national insurance contributors, after adding 2.2 million jobs since the labour reform and 3.3 million since 2018," says Minister Elma Saiz. "In less than two years, we have added on average two million registered workers. This is a very positive figure which includes several record items. In the month of March, almost 10.4 million female contributors were registered, the highest figure in the series", explains Social Security Minister Elma Saiz. "A record was set for foreign contributors, exceeding 3.15 million for the first time in terms of average figures".

Specifically, the number of foreign workers in the original series stands at 3,151,563, which is 230,358 more than a year ago, and already represents 14.4% of the total.

The employment performance of women stands out, with 10,372,812 employed women. Specifically, there are 255,754 more registered female workers than a year ago and nearly 1.8 million more than in 2018.

Women now represent 47.4% of all contributors, one percentage point higher than in 2018. Their presence in the labour market is growing at a rate of 2.53% compared to 2025.

Labour market

Overall, the average number of registered workers is approaching 21.9 million, with a year-on-year increase of 2.5%. In this context, there are sectors within the General Regime that stand out for having grown much more than the average in the last year. This is the case for Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing (7.7%), Water Supply and Sanitation (5.1%), Construction (5.1%), Arts, Sports and Entertainment Activities (5%), Publishing, Broadcasting and Content Production and Distribution Activities (4.2%), and Transport and Warehousing (4%).

Also noteworthy is the growth in Real Estate Activities (3.6%), Education (3.6%), and Health Care Activities (3.4%).

In the case of the self-employed, the year-on-year growth in Telecommunications, Computer Programming, Consultancy and IT Infrastructure, which grew by +10.9%, is significant.

Overall, the number of self-employed workers, which remains above 3.4 million, has grown by 1.2% in the last year.

More stability and quality in employment

Since March 2021, there has been a substantial improvement in the quality of employment, with 4,771,368 more workers with permanent contracts and 1,844,910 fewer with temporary contracts. There are increasingly more stable jobs, with more rights and better salaries. The largest increase is among full-time permanent contracts, with 293,043 more than a year ago. Meanwhile, permanent part-time contracts increased by 57,460.

The weight of temporary workers stands at 11.6%, down from 29.8% in March 2019. This improvement is even more remarkable among workers aged 55 and over, who have a temporary employment rate of 9%, compared to more than 21% seven years ago.

Non official translation