SPAIN’S unemployment rate climbed back to a double-digit percentage in the first quarter of 2026.
Job losses nearly doubled compared with the same period last year, in what is typically the weakest part of the year for the country’s seasonal jobs market.
Unemployment rose to 10.83% between January and March period, from 9.93% in the final quarter of last year, according to the National Statistics Institute(INE).
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The Ministry of Economy pointed out that the rate of 10.83% is the lowest in a first quarter since 2008.
Around 170,300 jobs were lost compared with the fourth quarter, up from 92,500 lost in the same three months of 2025, and the most for a first-quarter period since 2020, the INE stated on Tuesday.
According to the INE, the group of salaried workers decreased in the first quarter by 102,900 (-0.5%), with the bulk of the adjustment concentrated in temporary employment (-85,400), compared to a drop of 17,600 salaried workers with permanent contracts, who remain at 16.24 million permanent workers.
The labour market traditionally sees unemployment rise the most in the first quarter of the year, as gains made over the warmer spring and summer months work their way out of the system.
Employment in the last three months of a year is also helped by the Christmas holiday period within retail and hospitality.
In 2025’s fourth quarter, unemployment sank below 10% for the first time since the financial crisis of 2008.
Spain’s economy, which has been one of the fastest growing among developed nations in recent years and a main driver of jobs growth in the eurozone, increased job numbers by 527,600 in the last 12 months, the INE said.
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