Catalonia ends 2025 with 12,000 fewer unemployed after a year of record employment.
The labor market ends the year with nearly 84,000 more people affiliated with Social Security.
BarcelonaThe year has come to a close, marked by record-breaking employment figures in both Catalonia and Spain, particularly during the summer season. The Catalan labor market ended 2025 with 3,874,736 people registered with Social Security, a 2.21% increase – 83,912 people in absolute terms – compared to December of the previous year, according to data published this Monday by the relevant ministry. Even so, December ended with 5,566 fewer employed individuals than in November, a 0.14% decrease that keeps the total number of Catalan registered workers from the all-time high recorded in July.
Regarding unemployment, in 2025 there were still 323,236 people registered with employment services in Catalonia seeking new jobs, 11,959 fewer than in December 2024. This represents a 3.57% reduction over the past year, according to data published this Monday by the Ministry. In fact, it is the lowest unemployment figure for December since 2007, on the eve of the Great Recession. However, the peak of the Christmas season contributed to an increase of 1,860 unemployed people in Catalonia, a rise of 0.58%.
Across Spain, the ministry led by Elma Saiz highlighted that in 2025, half a million more people joined the Social Security system – specifically, 506,451 – for the fourth consecutive year, bringing the total to 21.84 million employed, 19,180 more than in November. Comparing autonomous communities, Madrid created the most jobs throughout the year, with 108,159 new employees, leaving Catalonia in second place. In fact, Catalonia is no longer the region with the most employed people in the country, as for the first time in decades, the region presided over by Isabel Díaz Ayuso has surpassed it, with 3,882,342 active workers at the end of the year. The Catalan Minister of Business and Labor, Miquel Sàmper, downplayed this overtaking He asserted that Madrid's growth does not distort Catalonia's upward trend. "It has a very significant capital city effect," he noted. He attributed this to the increase in public sector employment, because "all the ministries are located there," and to the concentration of certain sectors, such as transport and warehousing, which choose the Spanish capital because of its radial transport network. In his year-end assessment of employment, Sàmper declared 2025 "very good," as it resulted in lower unemployment and higher employment. "The labor market and the economy in Catalonia are performing well in a context that has not been easy at all," the minister said, referring to the recent years of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, the general rise in prices, and the Trump administration's tariff offensive. Sàmper celebrated the reduction in unemployment across all sectors of the Catalan economy—especially in construction, with an 11.5% decrease—and in all Catalan provinces. Over the past year, Lleida has generated the most jobs in percentage terms, with a 2.65% increase.
Which sectors create the most jobs?
Beyond the statistics, Sàmper promised to "put into practice the slogan of shared prosperity" championed by the Isla administration and ensure that the improvement in macroeconomic figures also benefits the household economies of Catalans. "We want larger, more solvent companies with greater profits that reach the workers," the Minister of Business and Labor asserted. Therefore, he acknowledged, it is necessary for job creation to focus on high value-added activities, with higher salaries and a larger workforce. During 2025, the sector that most accelerated the pace of job creation was transportation (+7%), followed by information and communications (+5%) and healthcare (+3%). In this regard, Sàmper recognized that the current figures "are not what we would like," but they do indicate "the roadmap of where we want to go," with a focus on attracting workers linked to artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and the chemical industry.
In Spain, unemployment fell by 16,291 people in December (-0.67%), bringing the national total to 2,408,670. Over the past year, the number of people seeking employment has decreased by 152,048, a drop of 5.94%. As in Catalonia, this is the lowest year-end unemployment figure since 2007. In absolute numbers, the autonomous community that saw the greatest reduction in unemployment during 2015 was Andalusia (-51,782 people), followed by the Valencian Community (-25,560), while Catalonia came in third. However, if we look at the percentage, the largest reduction was recorded in Castilla-La Mancha, with 8.58% fewer unemployed than at the end of 2024.
The ministry headed by the Second Vice President of the Spanish Government, Yolanda Díaz, has highlighted that unemployment fell to a total of 176,856 registered young people, the lowest figure in the entire historical series. This is one of the pending issues in the Catalan labor market, which ended 2025 with 301 more unemployed people under 25. "This is a priority for the Government," said Sámper, who wants to address this issue by boosting dual basic vocational training. Training to improve job reintegration prospects is also the tool the Generalitat (Catalan Government) is focusing on for the long-term unemployed, where, for the first time in a long time, a slight downward trend is being observed.
From the employers' association Foment del Treball, the interpretation of the data is more catastrophic. The business organization has warned that "elements of structural weakness persist in the labor market, such as low productivity, increased absenteeism, and the mismatch between supply and demand." Meanwhile, CCOO of Catalonia has called for achieving the "challenge" of "full employment," and UGT has stated that the year has ended with "the same old precariousness," with "high volatility" in hiring.
