Catalonia leads the rise in unemployment in August

BarcelonaCatalonia closes the month of August with the now traditional rise in unemployment that marks the end of the summer season. According to the data published this Wednesday by the Spanish Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, the Principality ended the eighth month of the year with 329,468 job seekers, an increase of about 14,594 people compared to the month of July, 4.63% more. If compared with August 2025, it must be said, the rise is more controlled, with about 2,100 more unemployed people, an increase of 0.64%. In this way, the Catalan labor market moves away from the minimums it reached 12 months ago, when it registered 327,365 unemployed, the lowest figure since 2007.

In fact, the monthly increase is much more intense than that registered in the previous year: in 2025, Catalonia gained about 7,942 unemployed people. Furthermore, a year ago there was a year-on-year decrease in unemployment of 8,625 people; while this year more than 2,100 have been added. Compared to July, Catalonia is the territory that gains the most unemployed people, well above the Community of Madrid (+6,881 job seekers) and the Valencian Community (+5,847).

In the Spanish state as a whole, an increase in unemployment of 44,419 people has been registered at the end of August compared to the month of July. However, in year-on-year terms, the ministry directed by Yolanda Díaz calculates a decrease of 70,593 people without work, down to 2,355,918. In the Spanish case, the figure does remain at the lowest levels since before the 2008 financial crisis. There are several territories that lower the number of unemployed compared to 2025, although the bulk of the reduction is concentrated in Andalusia, which registers 530,256 unemployed people, 62,355 less than a year ago.

Foreigners and temporary workers

Regarding the figures for foreign workers, an increase in unemployed persons is recorded across practically the entire Spanish territory, in line with the forecasts for the extraordinary regularization promoted by Pedro Sánchez's government. Specifically, the Principality closes August with 72,859 foreign persons without work, about 4,800 more than in July and about 10,490 more than in the same month of the previous year. The dynamic is repeated in Spain as a whole: the ministry reports about 373,577 foreign unemployed, a month-on-month increase of 15,956 persons compared to the previous month, and nearly 51,000 in year-on-year terms.

Regarding new contracts, Catalonia has registered, according to the ministry's report, 182,326 during August, a year-on-year increase of 22,282, 13.92% more than a year ago. Of these, the majority are temporary, with 106,734 contracts of this type accounted for, about 9,446 more than a year ago. For its part, new permanent contracts rose to 75,592, a jump of more than 12,800 when compared with August 2025, a notable 20.45% more.

In the state as a whole, Labor and Social Economy reports 1.14 million new contracts, about 104,865 more than a year ago. Of these, 440,274 have been permanent (54,418 more) and 704,553 temporary, a year-on-year increase of just over 50,000 contracts.

Díaz has shown her satisfaction with the general data presented this Wednesday. According to the First Vice President, employment "drives the Spanish economy". For the minister, the rise in unemployment above what is usual for these dates, which has been especially noted in Catalonia, responds to the regularization of migrant persons, who "it is common for them to have registered for the first time in the employment offices". On the other hand, the head of Labor and Social Economy has highlighted the percentage of new permanent contracts, which exceeds 38% of the total "compared to the 8.5% before the labor reform".

For its part, the Generalitat points out that “the behavior of unemployment and affiliation is within what is expected in the month of August and we hope that the new term begins with the same momentum as the previous ones in terms of economic growth and employment”. In a press conference following the publication of the data, the Secretary of Labor of the department directed by Miquel Sàmper, Paco Ramos, has acknowledged that the increase in unemployment is "higher than it usually is in a month of August", and has shared that "probably" there have been elements linked to the regularization of migrant persons. Even so, he has remarked that the behavior of employment and Social Security affiliation are "within the expected" at the end of the summer holidays.

Less than 4 million employed

In line with the unemployment data, the Ministry of Social Security has reported a decrease in affiliation in the Principality of 59,500 people compared to the month of July, to 3.9 million workers. With this setback, the country has lost the threshold of four million employed, which it had indeed exceeded in the two previous months. It is worth noting that, if the reference is year-on-year, an growth of 3% in affiliations is observed, the most significant year-on-year since May 2023.

The monthly loss of employment in Catalonia offsets the new affiliations following the regularization of migrant people, which has added 64,332 new registrants in Catalonia since the start of the process, 19% of all new registrations in the State via this route.

In the country as a whole, the regularization of migrants has managed to reduce the loss of affiliation at the end of August, which remained at 162,840 fewer registrants, the smallest reduction since 2021. In total, Spain records an average number of affiliates of over 22.3 million workers. In the whole of the Spanish territory, since the start of the regularization process, about 340,000 new contributors have been added. Along similar lines to Díaz's assessment, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, has assured that "the labor market is in very good health".

"Normal" labor fluctuations

The Spanish business world has downplayed the rise in unemployment and the decline in employment. According to the CEOE, the state's main employers' association, the figures published today by the ministry respond to a "cyclical fluctuation" that stems from the process of regularizing migrants. Beyond this phenomenon, the entity presided over by Antonio Garamendi frames the labor movements within the normality of the month of August and the end of the holiday period. However, it warns that "significant structural imbalances in the Spanish labor market" persist, as shown, in its view, by the total number of unemployed people. To resolve them, the CEOE calls for strengthening business confidence and offering legal certainty to businesses, "avoiding the introduction of unnecessary rigidities into the labor market".

The Catalan association of small and medium-sized enterprises, Pimec, considers the situation more serious: in an appearance this morning, the entity's secretary general, Josep Ginesta, called to "urgently review and rethink the country's employment policies", given the "significant increase in unemployment" registered last month. In Ginesta's eyes, the problem lies in the "difficulties" companies have in "connecting registered unemployed people with the vacancies they offer". To resolve this dysfunction, Pimec calls for the application of active employment policies.

The unions, for their part, are demanding "human and economic resources" for the Employment Service of Catalonia (SOC), given the increase in the demand for training and labor support that has followed the regularization of migrant workers. CCOO, in this sense, demands that the administrations "anticipate this situation" to guarantee attention to new members. The UGT, for its part, prioritizes "promoting" a new productive model, with higher added value and that drives away the seasonality already traditional during the summer holidays.