Spain’s job market is picking up speed as an early Holy Week approaches, following a particularly tough January. The proximity of the holidays this year pushes companies to speed up hiring plans, and the trend is visible in the latest statistics. February marked Spain’s strongest month in 17 years for job creation, driven mainly by the hospitality and education sectors.
Although seasonal factors influence hiring cycles, the labor market has shown resilience despite setbacks from Eastern tensions and the inflation shock. The economy is gritting its teeth, resisting any slide into a downturn and staying the course with steady employment momentum.
Social Security registered 103,621 more affiliates in February than in January, bringing the total active workforce to 20.7 million. The last time February posted a larger second-month improvement was just before the housing bubble burst in 2007, a period that quickly gave way to the deepest economic crisis in recent history.
Since then, Spain has grown both economically and demographically, now employing nearly two million more people. Yet the unemployment register at Sepe still shows almost the same number of people enrolled, highlighting a major challenge. Despite an expansive cycle since the COVID shock, Spain still struggles to meaningfully reduce unemployment and to shed the stigma of having one of the highest unemployment rates among the European Union member states.
February’s figures are influenced by the upcoming Holy Week, which runs from March 24 to 31 this year, but not entirely explained by seasonality. The government has emphasized the distinction of the seasonally adjusted employment data, a measure that removes calendar noise to offer a clearer, more contextual snapshot.
Spain emerges as the strongest European economy on employability among the big economies
According to these numbers, Spain would be approaching the symbolic figure of 21 million employed people, a landmark highlighted by the minister in a video released on Monday morning. The figure mirrors levels reached during the spring and summer of last year when hiring peaked, but those peaks have yet to settle into a sustainable trend. The government hopes to confirm the 21 million mark in the near future.
“With these figures, Spain remains on an upward trajectory, positioning it as the strongest economy in Europe among the leading countries in employability. We are creating one out of every three jobs in the euro area, balancing quantity with quality,” the minister noted.
Creeping toward ten million employed women
Another milestone expected in the coming months is reaching ten million women in work. Female employment has historically been more responsive to economic cycles – rising when conditions improve and falling when they worsen. It currently sits around 9.8 million, and barring unforeseen shocks, it is likely to hit the ten-million mark before summer ends. The challenge will then be maintaining that level through the winter months that follow.
February typically marks a transition toward the warmer months when employment growth tends to accelerate. This year, the early Holy Week could stretch the hiring wave, making the cycle longer but less explosive. The reform of the labor market, which reduces temporary employment, is expected to temper both hiring and firing figures.