In March 2025, Spain's labor market demonstrated signs of recovery as the number of social security affiliations increased by 161,492, surpassing the levels recorded in December 2024. Despite this positive development, the unemployment rate remains elevated, with 2,580,138 individuals currently unemployed.

Data released this week indicates that the total number of social security affiliates reached a new record for March, totaling 21,357,646.

This figure is slightly higher than the 21,337,962 recorded at the end of 2024. The number of unemployed people saw a decline of 13,311, marking the lowest level of unemployment for March since 2008.

In a month-on-month comparison, social security affiliations rose by 0.76% from February, while unemployment fell by 0.51%.

These figures are lower than the corresponding increases seen in March of the past two years, which featured growth rates of 0.93% in 2024 and 1.02% in 2023 for affiliations, and declines of 1.21% and 1.67% for unemployment, respectively.

The slower growth in March 2025 has been attributed to the lack of the Easter week—which will occur in mid-April this year—and adverse weather conditions that negatively affected hospitality activity across the country.

On an annual basis, employment creation continues to slow down, with a year-on-year increase of 2.18% compared to March 2024. This contrasts with the higher growth rates of 2.58% and 2.73% seen in the previous two years.

Notably, the increase in affiliations over the past twelve months stands at 455,679.

Conversely, the reduction in unemployment has accelerated, with a year-on-year decrease of 5.39%, compared to a 4.73% decline in the previous year.

According to Eurostat, the unemployment rate for February was 10.4%, approaching the target of 10%.

However, Spain continues to hold the highest unemployment rate in the European Union.

In March, unemployment decreased across all sectors except among individuals who were previously unemployed, with 3,650 people newly registering with the SEPE, the public employment service.

Employment grew within both salaried and self-employed categories, with the increase being more prominent among salaried workers, who saw a monthly gain of 0.83%, compared to a 0.36% rise among self-employed individuals.

This trend also holds true in annual comparisons.

March's highlights indicate that the hospitality sector was the primary contributor to employment gains compared to January and February; however, this increase was lower than in other March months due to the absence of the Easter holiday.

The hospitality sector recorded a gain of 61,477 affiliations, significantly less than the 81,151 affiliations added in March 2024. The number of self-employed individuals in the hospitality sector increased by 1,957 compared to February.

The strongest growth in self-employment came from the scientific and technical professional activities sector, which saw an addition of 2,231 affiliations, followed by construction, with an increase of 1,959 affiliations.

In contrast, other sectors showed notable employment gains, with education adding 14,369 affiliations, administrative activities increasing by 12,986, and transportation seeing 8,939 new affiliations.

Annually, the transportation sector recorded the highest employment growth rate at 7.24%, resulting in a total increase of 60,731 affiliations.

Public sector employment in education and healthcare also contributed significantly to the rise, both exceeding 50,000 new affiliations.

However, the commerce sector, hospitality, and manufacturing industries faced declines in self-employment, losing 10,599, 568, and 2,666 positions, respectively.