Catalonia loses 59,500 jobs in August as unemployment rises

Employment in Catalonia fell by 59,500 people in August, a 1.48% drop that took the number of registered workers below 4 million.

Despite the decline, Social Security membership rose 3% year-on-year to 3,965,220, a record for August, helped in part by the recent regularisation of migrants.

At the same time, Catalonia recorded the biggest increase in unemployment in Spain, with the number of registered jobseekers rising by 14,594, or 4.6%, from July.

The Spanish government said foreign workers had been "especially dynamic" in the labour market.

Around 340,000 people registered in Spain with Social Security in August had benefited from an extraordinary migrant regularisation process that closed in June.

Of these, 64,332 were in Catalonia, accounting for 19% of the total.

The Catalan government will also examine whether the regularisation contributed to the rise in unemployment among people who had not previously held a job. That group increased by 3,228 people in August.

Labour secretary Paco Ramos said the increase was "higher than is usual for an August" and that there was "probably" some element linked to the regularisation, although he stressed that this needed to be analysed.

He nevertheless described the overall behaviour of unemployment and Social Security membership as "within expectations" for August.

Across Spain, Social Security membership rose by 679,000 people year-on-year in August, an increase of 3.1%, to 22,345,226. Membership fell by 162,840 from July, as is usual in August, although it rose by 83,844 after seasonal effects were considered.

Unemployment rises from July and a year earlier

Catalonia ended August with 329,468 unemployed people, up 4.6% from July and 0.6% from August 2025. The increase of 14,594 people was the biggest August rise since 2010, when unemployment increased by 16,703.

It was also the first year-on-year increase in unemployment in Catalonia in August since 2020, the year of the pandemic.

Despite the rise, the total number of unemployed was the second-lowest for an August since 2008, narrowly above last year's figure of 327,365.

Across Spain, unemployment rose by 44,419 people in August to 2,355,918, the lowest figure for the month since 2007. Year-on-year, however, unemployment fell by 70,593, in contrast with the slight increase in Catalonia.

Catalan government highlights economic resilience

The Catalan government said the August figures "show the strength and resilience of the Catalan labour market in a seasonally complex context," when the end of summer typically affects employment.

It said employment continued to evolve positively, unemployment remained at "historically low" levels and hiring continued to gain momentum.

"These results reflect the good performance of the Catalan economy, business confidence and the effectiveness of policies aimed at creating more and better jobs," the Department of Business and Labour said in a statement, highlighting a "favourable trend that allows us to face the coming months with optimism."