Labor market sets new Q1 record in 2025 with 3.85 million employed workers

2025 has started with a new record set for the labor market in any first quarter in Catalonia, with 3.85 million people in work.

Overall, the figure represents the sixth highest figure on record, while the year-on-year growth has been 66,300 employees (+1.75%).

At the same time, the unemployment rate has risen slightly to 8.91%, one point above the last quarter, but half a point below the levels of a year ago (9.48%).

To find a lower percentage in a first quarter of any year, we have to go back to 2008 (7.52%).

The total number of unemployed people grew by 47,100 people in three months, to 376,400.

On the other hand, compared to last year, the number of jobless workers has decreased by 19,700.

These data come from the Active Population Survey (EPA) published on Monday by the National Institute of Statistics.

The figures indicate that the start of 2025 has seen a quarterly increase in the unemployed above the average of recent years, both in absolute and relative terms.

Thus, it is necessary to go back to 2012 to find a higher total increase in the number of jobless workers (62,500) and to 2019 to find a relative growth above the 14.3% recorded (37.8%).

However, the total number of unemployed people is 5% below the data from a year ago in Catalonia.

Two ways of calculating unemployment

In Catalonia and Spain, there are two ways of calculating employment and unemployment figures. 

These figures come from the latest Labor Force Survey, which is published every three months, whereas monthly figures are published by the labor ministry, calculating the number of registrations with social security.

The variation in the figures can be attributed to the different methods for gathering data.

The EPA figures, published in this article, are taken from surveying a broad sample of 65,000 households - or some 200,000 individuals - all over Spain. The labor ministry figures are based on the number of jobseekers registered with the Employment Service.