Catalonia's 9.48% unemployment rate is lowest for Q1 since 2008

Catalonia registered an unemployment rate of 9.48% for the first quarter of 2024. 

The figure is up three tenths of a percentage point on the previous quarter, but down more than one percentage point on Q1 in 2023, when it was 10.66%. 

It is in fact the lowest Q1 unemployment rate since 2008 (7.52%). 

The number of people unemployed grew in the first three months of 2024 by 12,800, reaching 396,100, which is 32,400 fewer jobseekers than the previous year. 

The number of people in employment reached a Q1 record of 3.78 million, the third highest figure on record. 

Year-on-year, the number of people employed increased by 192,200 (+5.35%). Compared to Q4 2023, the number of people in employment fell by 17,000.  

Overall in Spain the unemployment rate also rose, by five tenths to 12.29%. The total number of people looking for work was 2.97 million. 

The figures were published in the Active Population Survey (EPA) for the first quarter of 2024, which has recently updated its databases for the last three years, making like-for-like comparisons difficult. 

Industry boost 

The industrial sector was the only sector that saw a significant increase in employment compared to the last quarter of 2023, with 8,300 more workers (+1.3%). The number of people employed in the services sector rose by 900 (+0.03%). 

In the construction sector the number of workers fell by 15,600 (-7.4%), while in agriculture it decreased by 10,500 (-18.5%).