La sagrada familia in Spain

Spain Unemployment

Spain Unemployment

Unemployment in Spain

The unemployment rate in Spain averaged 18.2% in the decade to 2022, double the 9.2% average for the Euro Area. The unemployment rate in 2022 was 12.9%. For more unemployment information, visit our dedicated page.

Spain Unemployment Chart

Note: This chart displays Unemployment Rate for Spain from 2014 to 2023.
Source: INE.

Spain Unemployment Data

2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Unemployment (% of active population, aop) 15.3 14.1 15.5 14.8 12.9

Unemployment rate stable in fourth quarter of 2023

The jobless rate remained stable at Q3’s 11.8% in the fourth quarter. In absolute terms, the number of unemployed workers decreased by 24,600 people to 2.8 million in Q4. That said, jobs were shed in Q4. The services sector shed jobs (-123,400), while the industrial (+4,900), construction (+30,700) and agricultural (+68,800) sectors added jobs. Overall, a total of 19,000 jobs were lost from the prior quarter. For its part, the workforce fell by 43,600 people in Q4 to a total of 24.1 million.

Commenting on the release, Wouter Thierie, economist at ING, stated: “We expect the unemployment rate to continue to hover around these historically low rates in 2024. In the first months of this year, slowing job creation and labour force growth due to strong immigration flows may put some upward pressure on the unemployment rate. But on the other hand, accelerating economic growth will keep the labour market tight.”

Consensus Forecasts and Projections for the next ten years

How should you choose a forecaster if some are too optimistic while others are too pessimistic? FocusEconomics collects Spanish unemployment projections for the next ten years from a panel of 28 analysts at the leading national, regional and global forecast institutions. These projections are then validated by our in-house team of economists and data analysts and averaged to provide one Consensus Forecast you can rely on for each indicator. By averaging all forecasts, upside and downside forecasting errors tend to cancel each other out, leading to the most reliable unemployment forecast available for Spanish unemployment.

Download one of our sample reports to visualize what a Consensus Forecast is and see our Spanish unemployment projections.

Want to get access to the full dataset of Spanish unemployment forecasts? Send an email to info@focus-economics.com.

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