The Spanish labor market concluded March with an increase of 161,492 jobs and a reduction in unemployment by 13,311 people.

While these results reflect a positive trend, they fall short of figures recorded over the past two years, particularly concerning unemployment rates.

Adverse weather conditions, including heavy rains throughout much of the month, significantly impacted key sectors such as tourism, agriculture, and construction, limiting the typical hiring surge associated with the Easter season, which falls in April this year.

The hospitality sector spearheaded job growth, contributing nearly 40% of the new positions, with 61,477 new affiliations reported.

This figure is a decrease from the 81,000 reported during the same month last year.

The education sector followed with an addition of 14,369 jobs, while further contributions came from administrative, healthcare, transportation, professional activities, commerce, and construction sectors.

In terms of gender representation, March marked a record high for women affiliated with the social security system, reaching 10,117,058, accounting for 47.4% of the workforce.

The increase in female employment outpaced that of men in the last month.

The latest figures show a total of approximately 21.35 million affiliates in the labor force, the highest recorded for March.

This number reflects an improvement from recent months and is on track to surpass previous records seen last June when the workforce neared 21.4 million.

Traditionally strong hiring months are anticipated in the upcoming periods, with potential boosts from the spring weather and the Easter holiday.

Hospitality sector representatives have noted that weather recovery contributed to a 30% increase in bookings as conditions improved following the heavy rains.

The seasonality characteristic of the Spanish economy suggests that future months may see continued growth.

Furthermore, the seasonally adjusted figure for total affiliations, which excludes calendar effects, increased by 23,079, bringing total affiliations close to 21.5 million workers.

Concerning unemployment, the reduction of 13,311 individuals marked the smallest decline in recent years, aside from 2022 and the significant spike observed in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The total number of registered unemployed now stands at 2.58 million, the lowest for this time of year since 2008, before the financial crisis.

Unemployment rates decreased across nearly all sectors, notably in services and industry, followed by construction, while agricultural employment remained nearly static.

Analyzing regional trends, unemployment fell in 15 autonomous communities, with notable absolute decreases in Valencia at 4,905 fewer unemployed, followed by Catalonia with a reduction of 2,556 and Galicia with 1,822.

Conversely, Madrid experienced an increase with 2,075 additional unemployed.

Employers acknowledge the positive employment figures but caution against two significant risks: the uncertain macroeconomic context, especially in light of current global players, and regulatory changes that lead to increased labor costs, which disproportionally affect small businesses.

There is concern that job growth is increasingly concentrated among larger companies, making up for losses in smaller enterprises.

In March, a total of 1.1 million employment contracts were signed, with 508,000 classified as indefinite, representing 43.68% of total contracts.

Of these, nearly half were full-time, with 28% part-time and 29% characterized as fixed discontinuous contracts.