Unemployment rate in Spain 2005-2024

At a rate of 11.27 percent in the second quarter of 2024, Spain was one of the countries with the highest unemployment rates in the European Union. As of the third quarter of 2005, the unemployment rate in Spain was at roughly 8.4 percent, the lowest recorded in the period under consideration. However, a few years later, by the third quarter of 2009, it had more than doubled. It was not until 2016 that Spain witnessed a downward trend in its unemployment rate. 

Unemployment in Spain

The age group with the highest distribution of unemployment is that of teenagers (16 to 19 years). Recent quarterly unemployment figures in Spain show that unemployment peaked in the first quarter of 2013, whereby there were approximately 6.28 million inhabitants unemployed, by the same quarter in 2024, unemployment had decreased by over 3 million. This trend is also reflected in the number of people in employment in Spain.

The situation in the European Union

Spain was the European country with the highest unemployment rate in August 2023, with nearly 12 percent of the labor force out of work. This figure is considerably higher than that of the rest of the European Union, which had an average unemployment rate of six percent as of the same period. In terms of youth unemployment, figures in the European Union reached 14 percent in August 2023, although the numbers varies greatly across the countries. While Greece and Spain topped the list at a youth unemployment rate of 23.5 and 26.8 percent, Germany was at the bottom of the list with just 5.7 percent of its youth out of a job.