End of Summer Pulls on Employment and Activity in Spain
As summer winds down in Spain, the season finishes with a mixed view of the labor market. The latest figures show a substantial drop in total employment during the peak of the summer, with 185,385 fewer workers than the previous month. Still, about 20.7 million people remain active contributors to the economy. While the post summer decline in hiring is smaller than in some past years, it remains a serious pattern that recurs annually. When combined with the positive momentum already built up in the labor market, these movements push Spain to record highs for active workers in the month of August.
Unemployment also rose, increasing by 24,826 to reach 2.7 million. This uptick marks the smallest August monthly increase since 2016, suggesting some stabilization despite the seasonal pressures.
The seasonal rhythm continues to shape hiring, with a natural cycle where activity slows in winter, revives around traditional holidays, peaks in the early summer, and then tapers off through August into autumn. Even with workforce reforms and other regulatory adjustments, these seasonal forces persist, leaving visible marks on Social Security membership and unemployment, particularly in an economy heavily reliant on tourism and related services. The government updated these trends this Monday.
August is often described as the least problematic month in recent years, especially when comparing it with 2020 and 2021, when the pandemic and shifting restrictions distorted the labor picture. Even so, the late summer period saw more than 200,000 contributors temporarily absent from work during the worst moments of the pandemic, and the current August data reflect the lingering effects of those events.
End of Summer Affects Regions and Sectors Alike
The job losses were visible across regions and sectors. The end of the tourist season hit certain areas particularly hard, with Catalonia bearing a notable impact as employment fell by 60,317, bringing regional employment to about 3.6 million. Madrid also felt the seasonal squeeze, though less sharply, with 36,860 fewer people working out of roughly 3.5 million workers in the region. The August bite drew broad attention as these regional shifts signaled how seasonality intertwines with local economies.
From a sectoral perspective, health care, domestic workers, and energy supply activities fared better. The education sector, with schools and colleges easing payrolls after a stretch of temporary hires, contributed to the overall decline in some metrics, while the broader picture reflected the ongoing seasonal drag on employment.
Positive Inertia Amid a Cooling Pace
Authorities employed seasonal adjustment techniques to strip out calendar effects and reveal the underlying trend in August. After this adjustment, the labor market showed a positive net change of 17,745 Social Security members. The adjusted data indicate continued inertia in activity, though at a slower pace than during the spring and early summer. In 2023 the seasonally adjusted monthly average increase was 60,262 affiliates, roughly 3.4 times higher than the August figure.
There are signs of a slowdown in recent months, but the overall recovery remains intact. June brought more pronounced warning signals, yet the year has shown resilience. Spain has emerged from a post-pandemic expansion and weathered challenges from the Ukraine conflict and inflation without losing substantial momentum in job creation. The late summer period underscores the transitional nature of the current cycle.
As context, Social Security has added a total of 482,096 members in the first eight months of the year, a figure surpassing the total jobs created in all of 2022. The final quarter of the year is expected to be more complex for recruitment, but the current momentum provides a core base for stability in the labor market. These developments matter for households and for policymakers as they assess the balance between seasonal fluctuations and structural upgrades in the economy.