In recent years, the role of immigration has become central to the country's social debate. And, in economic terms, arguments for and against have suggested that it both enriches and impoverishes us. But, really, what are the jobs that immigrants hold in Catalonia? What type of foreigner has the most weight in each sector? This year's extraordinary regulation has amplified the debate on whether demographic growth will be sustainable in the long term. For the moment, a large part of the business community has not hesitated to position itself in favor, seeing foreign talent as the best way to fill the gaps in the Catalan labor market.

When Noemí Selfín felt strong enough to return to the labor market after 16 years away from work, she knew she had to reinvent herself. At 52, with a disability resulting from an aggressive cancer and a career interrupted for over a decade by treatment, she sensed her resume would hardly compete on equal terms. “So many years out of the labor market made my profile unattractive. I needed to retrain,” she explains. During the pandemic, she began to orient herself towards tech profiles and enrolled in one of the tech bootcamps – intensive training courses – driven by Eurofirms Foundation.

During the last ten years, the number of foreign workers in Catalonia has doubled and they now total 773,000 employed. A report by Foment del Treball estimates the increase in this group between the first quarter of 2016 and that of 2026 at 386,700 people. The strong growth has boosted their weight in the net new employment created in Catalonia over the last decade, to the point of absorbing more than half (52.3%). This figure places the country almost 15 percentage points above the national average, which stands at 37.5%, despite La Rioja (55.2%), Castilla y León (58.9%), and the Basque Country (59.2) having larger proportions.

The president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete, has proposed an agreement with the government, parties, and unions to utilize the 60 million from the agreement with Social Security to strengthen primary care and reduce absenteeism. In this way, he insists on the warning he already gave in an interview with ARA, in which he warned that these resources are not being executed and must be returned.

This year, May Day arrives amidst a climate of uncertainty for thousands of workers in the country. The start of 2026 has not been particularly good for employment: according to the Active Population Survey (EPA) published this Tuesday, Catalonia added 84,400 unemployed people in absolute terms between January and March, which confirms the worst inter-quarterly increase since 2009. This figure places the unemployment rate at 10.12%, compared to 8.24% at the end of last year. In contrast, for the country as a whole, the unemployment rate was 10.83%, the lowest level in a first quarter since 2008.

The first quarters are traditionally not good for employment, as they are heavily marked by the end of the Christmas campaign. This year, Catalonia added 84,400 unemployed in absolute terms between January and March, 24% more than the previous quarter, the worst quarter-on-quarter increase since 2009. It is the second autonomous community with the highest increase, only behind the Balearic Islands, where the number of unemployed people soared by 76.55%.According to the active population survey (EPA) published this Tuesday, the Catalan unemployment rate in the first quarter stood at 10.12%. The National Institute of Statistics (INE) estimates that in Catalonia there were 435,600 people who wanted to join the labor market and could not. At the end of last year, however, unemployment stood at 8.24%.If we compare it to the first quarter of 2025, then the number of unemployed in Catalonia increased to a lesser extent – by 15.71% –, but it also grew because the beginning of the year is complicated in terms of employment. Last year Catalonia already experienced the worst start to the year since 2012, adding 47,200 new unemployed people, but this year it has broken new records and surpassed that threshold. The professor of labor law at the University of Barcelona (UB), Jordi Garcia, assured l?ARA that these EPA results show a "change in trend" regarding the dynamism of the labor market observed since 2011. "What is happening is no longer a slowdown in growth, but rather a decrease, a drop," he explained, and he contextualized it within a loss of dynamism in the economy in general.More employment

Despite the increase in the unemployment rate, in Catalonia this first quarter there were 16,900 more workers than in the same period last year, an increase of 0.44%. The explanation is that the volume of the active population – that is, of people who work or want to work – grew more than that of the employed population – people with a paid job –. Therefore, in proportion, those who entered to form part of the unemployed grew more than the group of workers, who represented a smaller percentage of the total.Between January and March, 46,300 jobs were destroyed, causing a 1.18% decrease in employment. In absolute numbers, this means that in Catalonia there were 3.87 million employed people, fewer than the almost four million in the last quarter of last year.Concern among social agents

Social agents have made a negative reading of the data. While Catalan UGT has opined that they show a "worrying evolution" of the Catalan labor market, CCOO de Catalunya has lamented that "they cannot be explained solely by the weight of seasonality". From the employers' associations, Foment has opined that the data are "especially negative" and Pimec has argued that the rise in unemployment "is not explained by a change in economic expectations".For their part, the Minister of Business and Labor, Miquel Sàmper, has committed to studying the data with "diligence". "In the registered unemployment so far, the trend is not this", stated the Secretary of Labor, Paco Ramos. They will analyze "whether trade or the tourism sector has had an impact" or if, on the other hand, the de-seasonalization strategy needs to be "strengthened". In parallel, however, Sàmper has not wanted to fail to highlight that the increase in the active population to record figures is "positive news because it shows that more people want to work in Catalonia", where there is "a dynamic market that works".Unemployment rises by 9.34% across the State

In the State as a whole, the unemployment rate was 10.83%, the lowest level in a first quarter since 2008. The number of employed people broke a new record, exceeding the threshold of 22.5 million people for the first time, after adding 532,300 workers in the last year. In contrast, Spain counted 2.7 million unemployed, 9.34% more than last quarter, but 2.89% less than in the same period last year.In absolute terms, however, between January and March, 170,300 jobs were destroyed in the State compared to the last quarter of last year. In seasonally adjusted terms, the balance was positive, showing a net incorporation of 96,800 people into the labor market, a 0.43% growth in the employment rate. Professor Jordi Garcia has warned that, "whenever someone looks for an excuse, they use the concept of seasonally adjusted", and finds it "difficult to understand that there are very different trends in Catalonia compared to the State". He recalled that Catalonia is a territory "with a lot of economic activity, and that means that if there is a general slowdown, it will probably be felt even more in Catalonia".The year-on-year increase in employment advanced in parallel with the active population, which in the State also reached a new historic high, standing above 25 million people. In the last year, Spain added 447,000 people capable of entering the labor market.

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Nissan announced this Monday to the unions that it has plans to present an employment regulation file (ERO) in three centers in Barcelona, where a total of 569 people work, according to union sources. The possible affected parties are the employees of the technical center of the Zona Franca of Barcelona, where 383 people work, the spare parts center of Prat de Llobregat (Baix Llobregat), with 122 employees, and the flexible areas center, also in Prat, with 64 workers.

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It seems that artificial intelligence has arrived to stay. As happened with other technological revolutions, the fear has set in that it will end up destroying jobs massively. Nothing new. When the internet appeared, the end of many professions was also announced.Beyond opinions, recent studies point in another direction: AI increases worker productivity by around 4% and, in the short term, no significant job destruction has been detected. This does not mean, however, that there will be no changes. There will be, and many.AI will transform tasks, redefine professional profiles, and force adaptation. Just fifteen years ago, almost no one imagined the current demand for artificial intelligence experts. Similarly, today we don't know what the key jobs will be in fifteen years. And this is not an anomaly: it is the usual functioning of technological progress. However, this impact will not be uniform. Medium and large companies start with an advantage, as they can better afford the initial implementation costs. The question is not whether AI will change the labor market, but how and who it will benefit most.The core issue, however, is whether this increase in productivity will translate into better wages. Recent experience suggests skepticism. In other technological revolutions, gains have been unevenly distributed: more qualified profiles have emerged stronger, while workers with more routine tasks have seen their bargaining power reduced.The challenge, therefore, is not only technological, but also social and political. If the benefits of AI are concentrated in a few companies or profiles, the result will be a more unequal labor market. If, on the other hand, it is accompanied by training, adaptation, and certain guarantees, it can become a tool for shared progress.

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The Generalitat has published the 2027 labor calendar, marked by Christmas and May 1st falling on a Saturday, as the Catalan executive reported this Wednesday in a statement. In total there will be 12 holidays in addition to Sundays.

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In April 2022, the major labor reform by Yolanda Díaz came into effect. The Minister of Labor promised that the new measures would foster a profound transformation of the Spanish labor market and combat one of its endemic problems: high temporality. Four years later, however, can we say that the initiative has achieved its main objective? According to Jordi Garcia, professor of Labor Law and Social Security at the University of Barcelona, no. "Or at least that's what it seems with the little data they provide," he assures. Different reports, such as one published a few weeks ago by the liberal think tank Fundación Civismo, agree with the expert and say that the changes have been, truly, "statistical".

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Social Security affiliation continued to grow in February in both Catalonia and Spain, although, in parallel, unemployment rose again for the third consecutive month. However, the number of unemployed last month was lower than the figures recorded a year ago, according to employment data published this Tuesday by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. The same pattern was repeated in Spain, with the total number of unemployed workers increasing, but with figures lower than those of February 2015. Specifically, at the end of February in Catalonia there were 327,253 workers seeking employment, 2,039 more than a year ago. in JanuaryUnemployment in Catalonia rose by 0.63%, according to data published Tuesday by the Ministry of Labor. This marks the third consecutive month of rising unemployment in the Catalan labor market, which reached its lowest level since 2008 (when the financial crisis and housing bubble burst) in June, with just over 315,000 unemployed. Despite these three months of increases, the unemployment figures remained 2.11% below the levels of February of last year, when there were 7,088 more unemployed than last month. Nationwide, unemployment also increased, rising by 3,584 people (0.15%) compared to January, reaching 2,442,646 unemployed. As in the case of Catalonia, despite the increase, unemployment remained below the levels of a year earlier, and in the last 12 months it fell by 150,803 people, a 5.84% decrease. By autonomous community, only Madrid and Castilla-La Mancha experienced a greater increase in unemployment in absolute numbers than Catalonia. By region, the bulk of job losses were concentrated in Barcelona, ​​the most populated, where unemployment increased by just over 2,000 people, while in Lleida and Tarragona the increases were 130 and 17 more unemployed, respectively. Girona, on the other hand, ended February with an average of 126 fewer unemployed than the previous month.

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Alongside the C-65, the road that connects Girona with the Costa Brava, stands the headquarters of the largest Spanish-owned resource company in Spain. Every day, it hires a total of 27,000 people from seven countries; 91,000 annually. And it does so from the industrial park in a cork-producing town, with no intention of abandoning its 35-year history. This is Eurofirms, which, with a turnover exceeding €700 million in 2025 and a 13% growth rate, holds the third-largest market share in the sector nationwide. But that's not enough for them.

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New job cuts in the Catalan pharmaceutical sector. Roche Diagnostics, a division of the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche, has filed for a workforce reduction plan (ERE) that would affect up to 50 people at its facilities in Sant Cugat del Vallès, the company's headquarters. According to information obtained by ARA, the pharmaceutical company filed the ERE with the Ministry of Labor and Social Economy, and not with the Catalan Government's Department of Labor. Roche Diagnostics develops and supplies technological tools for monitoring research results, administering therapies, and enabling patients to self-monitor their diabetes—glucometers for diabetic patients are one example. The Sant Cugat campus also houses one of the Swiss group's main innovation and development centers. Roche has three divisions in Spain: Diagnostics, in Sant Cugat; Pharma, in Madrid; and Informatics Madrid, also in the Spanish capital. Sources within the company have explained to this newspaper that the terms of the workforce reduction plan have been agreed upon with the works council, and that the expected impact is 3% of Roche Diagnostics' workforce in Spain. "We periodically review our structure and processes to ensure that we remain competitive, efficient, and can respond appropriately to market challenges and opportunities," these sources added. This workforce adjustment is not the first carried out by Roche Diagnostics. Two years ago, in 2024, it also implemented a workforce reduction plan affecting the same number of people, which the independent verification report of the non-financial information statement justified by the planned merger of Roche Diagnostics and Roche Diabetes Care Spain. The restructuring plan for this merger initiated a process that was expected to last until December 2025.

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The severe windstorm that has been battering Catalonia this Thursday has led to the suspension of educational and university activities, as well as a recommendation from the Catalan government to take extreme precautions, avoid non-essential travel, and opt for teleworking. This scenario, in which an authority issues recommendations, limitations, or prohibitions on mobility, creates rights and obligations for workers—such as having paid leave or working remotely when possible—and also for companies—paying for this leave or facilitating teleworking. All of this is covered in Article 37.3.g) of the Workers' Statute, which states that employees "may be absent" from work for up to four days "with the right to remuneration" if they are unable to attend their workplace due to the authorities' directives regarding the weather. However, this right generates an economic cost that raises the following question: who should bear it?

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The Spanish labor market is experiencing a period of sustained expansion: employment has reached record highs and the unemployment rate has hit its lowest level in 18 years, according to the latest data from the Active Population Survey (EPA). However, this growth is not solely attributable to market dynamics. Policies that have activated previously untapped talent also play a role. In this context, job placement emerges as a key element. For years, initiatives like Incorpora have demonstrated that personalized support and intermediation with companies can transform career paths after a significant life change.

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The Ministry of Labor and the UGT and CCOO unions, but not the employers' associations, have agreed this Thursday to raise the minimum interprofessional wage (SMI). 1,221 euros gross in 14 paymentsThis represents a 3.1% increase compared to 2025. It's a rise of 37 euros per month, as announced by the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey. The Council of Ministers will soon approve the salary increase, which will be retroactive to January 1st of this year. The employers' associations CEOE and Cepyme have distanced themselves from the agreement and rejected the increase, as anticipated in the statement released Thursday morning, in which they labeled the tax deduction in corporate income tax for the companies most affected by the pay increase as "deceptive" and "interventionist." According to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Labor and the unions agree that this salary level will remain exempt from personal income tax.

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Amazon has announced a new wave of layoffs that will affect 16,000 people worldwide, none of them in Spain. This is the second major restructuring by the e-commerce and cloud computing giant in the last three months, following the one in January. will announce the departure of 18,000 peopleOf these, 791 were in the corporate offices in Barcelona. The company attributes this second wave to the restructuring process following the era of overhiring resulting from the pandemic.

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Employment in Catalonia and Spain continued to grow in the last three months of 2025, reaching record highs. This led to the unemployment rate falling to its lowest level in almost two decades in Spain, below the 10% mark, according to data from the Labor Force Survey (EPA) published this Tuesday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In Catalonia, however, the unemployment rate rose slightly. Thus, the unemployment rate in Catalonia was 8.24% in the fourth quarter of 2025, six hundredths of a percentage point higher than... the 8.18% recorded in the previous quarterHowever, the increase in the unemployment rate occurred despite a reduction of approximately 900 people in the total number of unemployed workers over the quarter, which stood at 351,200. This is because, proportionally, the number of unemployed decreased at a slower pace than the total number of people (employed or unemployed) active in the labor market, which fell from 4.3 million to 4.26 million between the third and last quarters of last year. As for the total number of employed people—that is, workers with jobs—in Catalonia, this figure fell by approximately 37,400 to 3,913,200.

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The Ministry of Labor has offered social partners compensation for companies most affected by the minimum wage increase, but this is conditional on an increase in the lowest wages and maintaining current staffing levels. The ministry, headed by Yolanda Díaz, proposes a 3.1% increase in the minimum wage in 2021, to €1,221 per month (paid in fourteen installments), exempt from income tax. This was announced by the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey, in a press conference following a nearly three-hour meeting with social partners. The Deputy Minister of Labor clarified that this compensation is not "a gift." urbi et orbi"To all companies, even those that are not affected by the minimum wage. Pérez Rey has not gone into detail about what this compensation would consist of "with respect" to the work that the Treasury is doing, since its design is still being defined, but he has admitted that one of the possibilities is to introduce a tax deduction in the corporate tax.

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Exceptional growth in wages for entry-level workers over the past year, especially those working in small businesses, has resulted in this group gaining purchasing power compared to 2007: while accumulated inflation over the last 19 years is 43.5%, the wages of entry-level workers have increased by 45.89%, to 28.

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