Unemployment has fallen across all sectors: Services by 170,300 people, Agriculture by 22,400, Industry by 10,900 and Construction by 5,400.
Reported by the Consejeros Editorial Team
Data from the Labour Force Survey (EPA) show that, in the second quarter, unemployment fell by 213,300 people (7.87 per cent) compared with the previous quarter, bringing the total number of unemployed to 2,495,300. Meanwhile, the number of people in employment rose by 486,000 to 22,779,000, reaching an all-time high.
In detail, the unemployment rate fell to 9.87 per cent, the lowest since the first quarter of 2008.
The number of unemployed men fell by 67,900 and that of women by 145,400. Consequently, the female unemployment rate fell to 11.02 per cent – the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2007 – and the male rate to 8.84 per cent.
By sector, unemployment fell across the board: by 170,300 in services, 22,400 in agriculture, 10,900 in industry and 5,400 in construction. Unemployment fell by 57,700 amongst those who lost their jobs more than a year ago, whilst it rose by 53,400 amongst those seeking their first job.
By autonomous community, the largest fall was recorded in Catalonia (92,600), whilst, conversely, the largest increase was in Andalusia (up by 5,400). The Balearic Islands (6.11 per cent) recorded the lowest unemployment rate this quarter and Andalusia (14.56 per cent) the highest.
Furthermore, employment rose this quarter by 236,300 for men and 249,700 for women, setting a new record of 10,616,900 people in work.
By sector, employment rose in Services to a record high of 17,257,000 people (an increase of 394,000), in Construction (60,000) and in Industry (38,200), whilst it fell in Agriculture (a decrease of 6,200).
Full-time employment rose by 405,400 people and part-time employment by 80,600. In both cases, they set new records for the series, with 19,662,400 and 3,116,500 people in total, respectively.
The number of wage earners rose by 529,200, reaching a new all-time high of 19,585,400: those on permanent contracts increased by 386,900 and those on fixed-term contracts by 142,300. The number of self-employed workers fell by 42,900.
Private-sector employment grew by 501,600 this quarter, reaching 19,132,100 and exceeding 19 million for the first time, whilst public-sector employment fell by 15,600 to 3,646,900.
By autonomous community, the largest increase in employment this quarter was in Catalonia (up by 130,800) and the largest decrease in the Canary Islands (down by 25,100). Overall, the labour force grew by 272,700 people in the second quarter of 2026, reaching 25,274,300 – a new record high. The number of women in the labour force increased by 104,300 and that of men by 168,400. The labour force participation rate rose by 0.44 percentage points to 59.29 per cent.
