Employment in Catalonia employment tops 4 million again, marking best September on record

Employment in Catalonia grew again in September, taking the number of registered workers above 4 million and reaching a record level for the month, according to data released by the Spanish government on Friday.

A total of 38,014 people were added to the Social Security register during the month, bringing the total to 4,003,234, an increase of 0.96%. It marks the second time employment in Catalonia has surpassed 4 million, although the figure was not a new all-time high, remaining below the record seen in July.

Compared to September 2025, the number of registered workers rose by 3.61%, or 139,583 people.

Unemployment

Unemployment, meanwhile, edged up in September, with 604 more people out of work than in August, an increase of 0.18%.

Compared with September last year, the rise was 2.5%, with 8,000 more unemployed people, taking the total to 330,072.

Spain figures

Across Spain, employment rose in September, with 92,327 more people registered with social security than in August, an increase of 0.41%.

Year-on-year, the number rose by 739,888, or 3.41%, bringing the total to 22,437,553.

Spain ended September with 2,379,505 people unemployed, 23,587 more than in August, a monthly increase of 1%.

Despite the rise, the figure was the lowest recorded for a September in Spain since 2007. Year-on-year, unemployment fell by 42,160 people, or 1.74%.

Foreign workers

According to Spanish government data, 83,409 people in Catalonia who obtained legal status through the extraordinary regularisation process for immigrants have since registered with Social Security, accounting for 19.7% of the 421,306 people covered by the scheme across Spain.

Catalonia therefore has the largest number of registered workers from the regularisation process among Spain's autonomous communities, ahead of Madrid, with 80,530.

The number of foreign workers in Spain exceeded 3.6 million for the first time, representing 16.2% of all registered workers. That was 547,637 more than a year earlier.

There were 399,663 unemployed foreign nationals in Spain.

In Catalonia, 79,140 foreign nationals were unemployed in September, accounting for 24% of the Catalan total.