Unemployment rate in Spain 2005-2025

At a rate of 9.93 percent in the fourth quarter of 2025, Spain was one of the countries with the highest unemployment rates in the European Union. However, this represented an important decrease when compared to 2013, when the unemployment rate was nearly 27 percent.

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, when 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 November 2024, with nearly 11.2 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 July 2025, although the numbers varies greatly across the countries. While Estonia and Spain topped the list at a youth unemployment rate of 27 percent and 26.6 percent, Germany was at the bottom of the list with just 6.3 percent of its youth out of a job.