05/01/2026

Labour market balance

Social Security totals half a million members in 2025 for the fourth consecutive year and is approaching 21.9 million employed

Topics:

  • Seguridad Social y Pensiones
  • In seasonally adjusted terms, 21.87 million members are reached, the highest level, with 33,000 more members in December.
  • In the original series, the year closes with 21.84 million people employed, 19,000 more than in November and 506,000 more than in 2024
  • Daily records have remained in December most days above 21.85 million, rising to more than 21.9 million on December 11.
  • Employment is growing well above the average (11.8%) among both young people under 30 and older 55, more than 23% since before the labour reform
  • The number of affiliates increases strongly in high value-added activities: Information and Communication. It also shows a great dynamism Education and Construction
  • Minister Elma Saiz: “Nine out of ten affiliates are indefinite, the good functioning of the labor market not only means more employment; it is of higher quality. Before the labor reform, 3 out of 10 employed had a temporary contract.”

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The labor market has more than half a million members in the last twelve months (506,451 in the original series) and in the last four years, since the entry into force of the labor reform, it has accumulated more than two million more members.

In December, Social Security has added 19,180 members in average terms and is approaching 21.9 million. Specifically, it has reached 21,844,414 members in the original series, the third best month in history, only surpassed by the months of June and July of this same year. The year-on-year rate was 2.4%.

In seasonally adjusted terms, 33,076 more members registered in the last month alone and 507,922 more in the last twelve months, reaching a total of 21,871,328, the highest level in the historical series.


 

“Nine out of ten affiliates are indefinite, the good functioning of the labor market not only means more employment; it is of higher quality. Before the labor reform, 3 out of 10 employees had a temporary contract,” said the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz.

For its part, daily records have remained well above 21.8 million for most days, rising to more than 21.9 million on December 11.

The number of women affiliated to the Social Security continues in historically high figures, with 10,352,780 on average in December. There are 243,578 employees more than a year ago. The improvement in the employment of women is 13.4% since the year before the labor reform, 3 points higher than that of men.


 

The number of foreign workers remains at its highest and exceeds the 3.1 million members. This group represents 14.1% of the total in the month of December.

Data by age

By age, both the occupation of young people and older people, aged 55 and over, has grown above 23% since before the labor reform: 26.7% among those under 30 years of age and 23.7% among those aged 55 and over; while the combined growth of the labour market average is 11.8%.




Highly productive sectors

In the last twelve months, almost all of the activities of the General Social Security System have been affiliated. This increase is particularly significant in Transport and Storage (+6.9%), Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (+5.4%), Artistic, Recreational and Entertainment Activities (+5.3%), Water Supply (+5.1%), Construction (+4.6%) Real Estate Activities (4%) and Education (+3.9%).

It highlights the improvement in activities with high added value, such as Information and Communication (+3.2%) and Scientific and Technical Professional Activities (+2.9%), whose average contribution bases and level of stability is higher than the average.

Among these highly productive activities, Programming, Consulting and Informatics (+36.2% since the labor reform) and those related to Headquarters and Business Consulting (+30.5%) are the ones that grow the most.


 

Self-employed

The number of self-employed workers remains at record levels, above 3.4 million (RETA and SETA), with 3,425,767 self-employed workers, 39,002 more than a year ago, which represents a growth of 1.2%.


 

Throughout 2025, the affiliation of self-employed workers has grown especially sharply in Information and Communication and Real Estate Activities with 10.4% and 8.2%, respectively. It also grows in a remarkable way: Electricity Supply (+7.6%), Education (+5%), Health Activities (+4.8%) and Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities, which adds up to 4.7% of employed people.

The new self-employed in Information and Communication and in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities account for 24,935, 63.9% of the employment created in this Special Regime of Self-Employed Workers in the last year.

Higher growth in employment than the countries around us

The labor market in Spain (+10.7%) continues to mark a higher growth rate than other European economies (Italy, +6%; France, +2.1%; Germany, +1.4%), with reference to data from the end of 2021, before the entry into force of the labor reform.


 

More stability

Since December 2021, there has been a great transformation in the types of contracts in our labor market: there are 4,179,738 more with indefinite contract and 2,141,171 less affiliates with temporary contract. There are more and more stable jobs, with more rights and better salaries. The biggest increase occurs among open-ended contracts with full-time working hours, with 310,200 more than a year ago. While part-time contracts increase by 83,763.

The weight of temporary workers stands at 12.3%, compared to 30.2% in 2018. This improvement is even more remarkable among workers under 30 years of age, who have a temporary rate of 20.7% when seven years ago they had a rate higher than 46.4%.

Additional information in Excel and on the web:
https://w6.seg-social.es/PXWeb/pxweb/es
 

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