Catalonia again surpasses employment records with close to 4 million workers in May

Catalonia has once again surpassed employment records.

During the month of May, the region had nearly 4 million people working in jobs, more than any other month in historical records.

Data published by the Ministry of Inclusion and Social Security registered a total of 3,971,167 affiliated workers.

This is the second consecutive month that the Catalan labor market has broken the record for active employees.

In total, there are 50,034 more employed people than in April, the largest jump in members in a month since records began in 2012. In addition, Catalonia added 89,882 jobs this May compared to last year (+2.32%).

This May is the 4th time that the Catalan labor market has exceeded 3.9 million active workers, which had only been exceeded last month, and in June and July of 2025.

Unemployment

In parallel, the Ministry of Labor reports that unemployment continued to fall for the third month in a row with 6,900 fewer unemployed people (-2.19%), leaving the total at 307,627 unemployed, the lowest value since May 2008.

As usual, there were more women than men without jobs, with 179,000 unemployed women and 128,627 unemployed men.

In addition, there were 63,528 unemployed foreigners, 2.32% less than the previous month.

Compared to April, unemployment fell especially in the fields of agriculture (-3.49%) and in the services sector (-2.40%), but it also fell in industry (-1.71%) and in construction (-1.48%).

In the last 12 months, however, the drop in unemployment has been much more pronounced in the construction sector (-12.06%), meaning more jobs.

Agriculture (-6.80%) and industry (-5.48%) have also registered a notable decline in unemployment, while the fall in unemployment the services sector is below the Catalan average (-3.8%).