The labor market registered a sharp deterioration between January and March, with an increase in unemployment of 231,500 people, 9.3% more than in the previous quarter, while employment fell by 170,300 people (-0.7%). Job destruction was concentrated in the private sector, which lost 191,400 jobs, according to data released this Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
The increase in unemployment in the first three months of the year is the most intense in a first quarter since 2013, when the number of unemployed people grew by 257,200. At the same time, the decline in employment is the largest for this period since 2020, a year in which the outbreak of the pandemic ended 285,600 jobs.
At the close of March, the total number of unemployed people stood at 2,708,600, the highest level since the first quarter of 2025, while the number of employed people fell to 22,293,000 workers, below the all-time high of 22.46 million reached at the end of last year.
Economy highlights the 22.5 million employed
However, in a note sent to the media, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business stressed that, in seasonally adjusted terms, the threshold of 22.5 million employed people was exceeded for the first time, after employment grew in the first quarter by 96,800 people (+0.4%) and by 532,300 compared to a year earlier.
The department headed by Carlos Cuerpo pointed out that the start of the year is strongly conditioned by the seasonality derived from the end of the Christmas campaign in sectors such as hospitality and commerce.
After the increase of more than 231,500 unemployed people between January and March, the unemployment rate advanced nine tenths, to 10.83%, returning to double digits after 2025 concluded with 9.9%.
Despite this, the Ministry of Economy highlighted that this rate of 10.83% is the lowest in a first quarter since 2008.
The increase in the active population
The activity rate, for its part, fell slightly to 58.86%, despite the fact that the number of active people increased by 61,200 people in the quarter (+0.2%), reaching a new high of 25 million active people.
In interannual terms, unemployment has been reduced by 80,600 people (-2.9%) and 527,600 jobs have been generated (+2.4%), while the active population has grown by 447,000 people (+1.8%).
According to the INE, the group of salaried workers decreased in the first quarter by 102,900 people (-0.5%), with the bulk of the adjustment concentrated in temporary employment (-85,400), compared to a drop of 17,600 salaried workers with permanent contracts, who remain at 16.24 million permanent workers.
Full-time employment fell by 116,500 people between January and March (-0.6%), but increased by 567,600 in the last twelve months (+3%). In the same period, permanent contract employees increased by 539,700 (+3.4%) and temporary employees by 17,200 (+0.6%), so that the temporary employment rate fell to 14.77%, and stood at 11.91% in the private sector.
(((THERE WILL BE AN EXTENSION)))