January left, like every year, a strong destruction of jobs and an increase in unemployment. Bad month for the labor market, given the end of the Christmas campaign and without other activities that boost employment, the drop in jobs in 2026 is quite high: the largest since 2012, of about 270,800 affiliates. Regarding registered unemployment, it increased by 30,400 people, in this case a lower figure than usual.
Thus, the total number of workers affiliated to Social Security on average fell in the first month of the year to 21.57 million people. This is a very high figure, since the labor market in 2025 has reached record levels.
The monthly decrease in January, by 270,800 members less on average, is the highest in 14 years. Since 2012, during the Great Recession. The Ministry of Social Security recalls that “January is traditionally a negative month in the labor market” and adds that “the latter has been especially adverse due to the weather.”
In relative terms, out of the total number of employed people, the drop in employment was 1.24%, a figure also high for recent years of economic growth. Although, in this case, 2020 recorded a worse figure (-1.26%).
The reduction in employment usually focuses on commerce and hospitality, as well as ETTs, with the end of the Christmas campaign, without other sectors pulling the labor market. This year, however, Social Security does not offer evolution data by sector because it indicates that the classification of activities has changed with the new CNAE 2025.
The pace of job creation moderates
Beyond the data for a single month, the figures record a slowdown in job creation at the beginning of the year. The seasonally adjusted data, which isolates the evolution of employment from seasonal swings typical of the calendar, reflects a creation of 17,300 jobs in January.
In recent months, the increase in employment in seasonally adjusted terms has been moderating, but the decline this January is more notable. In November, 44,700 jobs were created and in December, 35,500.
If we look back a year, job creation drops from the half a million jobs achieved at the end of 2025, to 477,800 more workers in the last twelve months. In a very high figure, they are placing Spain as the driving force of Europe in job creation and also in driving the economy. This idea was highlighted today by the Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz, who stressed that Spain is providing “four out of every ten new jobs created in Europe”.
However, the pace of increase is more moderate than that recorded in recent months. In percentage terms, employment growth in January was reduced to 2.26% compared to 2.37% at the end of 2025. This is 11 tenths less, the largest decrease since last May.
By autonomous community, Valencia is the one that leads the creation of jobs in the last year (78,188, +3.6%), followed by Madrid (104,881, +2.8%) and Murcia (17,618, +2.7%). On the opposite side, those with the lowest increase in employment are Extremadura (3,357, +0.8%), Euskadi (9,881, +1%,) and La Rioja (1,849, +1.3%).
Unemployment increases less than usual
On the unemployment side, the increase in unemployed people registered at public employment offices last January is lower than that usually recorded this month. It increased by 30,392 people, “one of the smallest in the historical series,” highlights the Ministry of Labor.
This variation left the total number of registered unemployed at 2,439,062 people, “the lowest figure for the month of January in 18 years,” highlighted the second vice president, Yolanda Díaz. “This is very important, because unemployment normally rises, as you know, in the months of September and January,” recalled the head of Labor.
Of the total number of unemployed people, 1,469,283 are women and 969,779 are men. Unemployment thus affects female workers more than male workers and, furthermore, although it is reduced, it does so with somewhat less intensity than among men. In the last year, female unemployment fell by 94,148 (-6%) and male unemployment fell by 66,233 (-6.4%).
In year-on-year terms, registered unemployment has decreased by 160,381 people (-6.17%) and the seasonally adjusted figure is also reduced, which reflects a monthly decrease of 25,402 people.
Regarding contracting, the total number of contracts registered during the month of January was around 1,163,000, around 50,000 less than in January 2025 (-4%). Of the total, 484,295 employment contracts are indefinite, which represents almost 42% of all contracts when before the labor reform this figure reached barely 10%.
Source: www.eldiario.es
