Spain gained 621,925 registered workers in the first six months of the year, surpassing the 22.4 million mark for total employment

The number of national insurance contributors reached a new record high in June, with 22,466,339 people in employment. This breaks the 22.4 million barrier, following an addition of 128,533 workers over the last month. In the first six months of the year, the number of registered workers rose by 621,925, and the year-on-year rate of change now stands at 2.8% - the fastest pace of job creation since May 2023.

It has been one of the best Junes on record. The only periods that were better were the same periods in 2005 and 2021, the latter during the easing of pandemic restrictions.

"Spain is thus sustaining the strong momentum of its labour market, which is performing better than that of the major European economies," explains Elma Saiz. "Since the labour reform was implemented, Spain has gained 2.6 million employed people, and the rate of temporary employment has fallen to 12.3%, down from 31.5% in June 2018", explains Elma Saiz, Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.

The last year alone saw an increase of 605,244 in the average number of registered workers (+2.8%).

Spain accounted for 54.5% of the jobs created in the EU in the first quarter of 2026. Since 2018, the number of workers has risen by 13.8% in Spain, whilst in France it has risen by 6.6%, in Italy by 4.7% and in Germany by 2.1%. The average across EU countries is 5.2%.

Growth in the number of registered foreign workers has been particularly dynamic. The unadjusted figures show an average of 3,446,178 registered workers - an increase of 86,630 compared to May and 350,163 compared to a year ago. Together, they account for 15.3% of the total.

65 consecutive months of job creation

The seasonally adjusted figure, which accounts for seasonal fluctuations and calendar effects, puts the figure at 22,208,553 registered workers, following an increase of 92,531 over the last month.

Furthermore, the daily registration figures show that, for five consecutive days between 15 and 19 June, there were more than 22.5 million registered workers; never before in history have there been so many active workers. The highest level was recorded on the 18th, with 22,566,248 employed individuals.

"We have record levels of young people and women in the workforce; also of men, self-employed workers and foreign workers", explained Elma Saiz. "This means that Spain continues to lead in job creation among the main economies in the region. Since June 2018, there has been an increase of more than 3.4 million registered workers", the minister added.

Affiliation by activity sector

The sector that has seen the strongest growth over the past year, taking into account the total number of contributors in the General Scheme and the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers, is Publishing, Broadcasting and Content Production and Distribution (7.44 %). This is followed by Real Estate (6 per cent) and Construction (5.6%).

In the case of the General Social Security Scheme, the average number of registered workers has risen by 3% year-on-year (554,026 contributors). This figure was significantly exceeded in sectors such as Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing (+7.5%), Publishing, Broadcasting and Content Production and Distribution Activities (+7%), Construction (+6.6%), Water Supply and Sewerage (+5.4%), Arts, Sports and Entertainment Activities (+4.8%) and Transport and Storage (+4.3%).

For self-employed workers, whose total number grew by 1.5% year-on-year, significant increases were seen in Electricity, Gas, Steam and Air Conditioning Supply (+16.7%), Telecommunications, Computer Programming, Consulting and IT Infrastructure (+12.2%), Real Estate Activities (+10.2%), and Publishing, Broadcasting and Content Production and Distribution Activities (+9.3%).

Overall, the number of self-employed workers stands at 3,472,460, which is 12,017 more than a year ago and 198,902 more than in 2018.

Contributor numbers are particularly growing among women.

Particularly noteworthy is the dynamism of the labour market amongst women, where employment continues to grow at a faster rate than amongst men and now stands at over 10.6 million women in work. Specifically, there are 291,371 more women registered with Social Security than a year ago and more than 1.8 million more than in 2018. The improvement in female employment since 2018 is 21%, while that of men is 15.8%.

Female registered workers represent 47.3% of total employment, one percentage point more than in 2018. Their presence in the labour market is growing at an annual rate of 2.8%. At the same time, male employment is also reaching a record high, with 11,845,862 registered workers, after adding 313,873 in the last year and 1.62 million since 2018.

An analysis of employment trends over the last eight years reveals significant growth among both the oldest age group (those aged 55 and older) and the youngest demographic. Employment among older people has grown by 52.2% to a total of almost 5 million, and that of workers under 30 by 34.2% since 2018 (there are 3.7 million), 34 percentage points and 16 percentage points, respectively, above the overall figure of 18.2%.

Since June 2021, there has been a major shift in the types of contracts in the labour market: there are 4,896,905 more workers with permanent contracts and 1,971,962 fewer workers with temporary contracts.

There are increasingly more stable jobs, with more rights and better salaries. The largest increase is among those employed with permanent full-time contracts, with 314,502 more than a year ago; while registered workers with part-time contracts increased by 63,782.

Temporary workers now represent 12.3% of the workforce, compared to 27.9% in June 2021. This improvement is even more notable among workers under the age of 30, whose temporary employment rate is 20.6%, down from 51.1% five years ago.

As for younger workers - those aged 30 and under - their numbers have risen by 36.2% since June 2021. This represents an increase of 987,409, bringing the total to 3,718,547; this far exceeds the average growth rate of 15.2%.

Finally, the ratio of contributors to pensioners stands at 2.5, which is the highest level since 2011.

Non official translation