Spain has gained 567,600 wage-earning workers over the last year, a figure described as exceptionally high in comparative terms. This growth is largely propelled by an extraordinary year-on-year increase in public sector employment, which added 204,000 jobs according to third-quarter data from the Active Population Survey (EPA). Consequently, 36% of all new positions are linked to public administrations, representing the highest share in the historical series. Specialists suggest this acceleration is connected to a sharp slowdown recorded in 2025, when the sector experienced a net destruction of jobs that is now being compensated.
Globally, public employment represents 19% of total wage earners, a proportion similar to recent years. However, the country has never before gained so many public workers in a single 12-month period according to EPA records. The 204,000 jobs added in the third quarter represent a 5.8% increase, surpassing the previous record set in the second quarter of 2021, which saw an addition of 183,100 public workers and a 5.7% jump. While this strong rise was building during the first half of the year, it follows a contrary trend throughout 2025. In the third quarter of that year, 8,100 public workers were lost compared to the same period the previous year, an anomalous episode in years characterized by strong job creation in both public and private sectors.
Without a detailed analysis available yet, the UGT union's public services section highlights that this surge may be related to recent takeovers of positions within the General State Administration (AGE). Data disaggregated by administrative level supports this: the AGE gained 63,800 workers in the last year, reaching a total of 622,000, an 11.4% increase in a single year. This contrasts sharply with a 1.3% decline in the same period of 2025, which involved a loss of 7,400 workers. Luis Zarapuz, coordinator of the Economic Office of CC OO, considers it plausible that this year's data is compensating for the previous year's figures. He notes that public employment is not gaining weight relative to the private sector; it remains at 19% of total wage earners, half a percentage point higher than in 2025 but consistent with the 19% share seen in 2024.
Public employment also advanced significantly in regional administrations, which employ the most workers, though with less relative force than the state administration. Regional bodies gained 71,400 employees over the last year, reaching a total of 2.14 million, a 3.5% increase. Similar to the central administration, 2025 saw a decline of 7,500 workers across the autonomous communities, representing a 0.4% drop. Looking further back, private employment has grown more strongly than public employment in recent years. Since the third quarter of 2019, Spain has added 508,100 public wage earners and 2.38 million private wage earners. The public figure advanced by 15.7%, while private wage employment grew by 17.5%.
The total of 19.67 million public and private wage earners forms the Spanish labor market alongside 3.17 million self-employed workers. Unlike wage earners, the number of self-employed individuals fell by 104,700 in the last year, a decrease of 3.2%. The business association CEOE highlights this as a sign of lost productive fabric. Lorenzo Amor, president of the ATA self-employed association and vice-president of CEOE, stated that self-employed workers need fewer bureaucratic hurdles, lower taxes, reduced contributions, and more social protection. Since 2019, the total number of self-employed has grown by only 2.9%, significantly less than both public (15.7%) and private (17.5%) wage employment.
These disparate evolutions mean that self-employed workers now represent 13.9% of the labor market, the lowest share ever recorded, far below the 18% reached in 2013 during the Great Recession. Other associations linked to unions point out that other factors are at play in this contraction. They argue that the strong performance of wage employment means some individuals who previously resorted to self-employment out of necessity are now being hired by companies. This trend is evident as the proportion of self-employed workers falls during economic booms and rises during crises. This pattern is also visible territorially, with regions having a higher proportion of self-employed workers being less dynamic; Zamora typically leads in this variable, while Madrid ranks last.
Sources: El País Economía.