Malaga employment: province loses 11,000 jobs in January

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The end of the Christmas hiring campaign left a sharp fall in social security enrolment, although unemployment only rose by 1,050 people

Nuria Triguero

Málaga

Tuesday, 3 February 2026, 17:04

Malaga province lost 11,198 employees in January, which is a difficult month for the whole of Spain. This year all but one provinces are in the red in social security enrolment, which is not surprising given the low tourist season and the end of the temporary hiring campaign that comes with Christmas.

Spain closed the first month of 2026 with a loss of 270,782 employees, while the drop in Andalucía was 41,461.

While natural, the fall in enrolment in Malaga in January is the sharpest in recent months. It is also sharper than the decrease in January 2025 (nearly 10,500).

This year's January closed with an average of 727,760 active workers in the province, which is the highest figure ever for this month, but it is also approximately 31,000 fewer than in July last year, when Malaga broke its all-time record number of contributors (758,948). Since that peak, the province has seen a drop in employment for six consecutive months, which speaks of the undeniable seasonal nature of the Malaga labour market. Only one province in Andalucía has lost more contributors than Malaga: Seville (-12,606).

There is, however, a more positive way of looking at it: there are now 24,000 more people working in the province than at the same time last year. This year-on-year increase in enrolment is equivalent to 3.41 per cent, making Malaga the second province in mainland Spain (after Valencia) with the highest growth in employment over the last year (the national average is 2.26 per cent and the Andalusian average is 2.09 per cent).

More moderate rise in unemployment

Unemployment in Malaga province grew more moderately in January. From December to January, the number of unemployed persons in Malaga increased by 1,050, reaching 110,925. Unemployment rose in all Spanish provinces except two: the Balearic Islands (-1,260) and Guipúzcoa (-19). In Andalucía, Seville suffered the highest rise (+2,380) and Almeria registered the lowest (+182). Compared with the same month in 2025, Malaga has 10,561 fewer unemployed.

It is important to note that the difference between the fall in employment and the rise in unemployment is largely due to discontinuous permanent workers: when they cease to be active they are no longer counted as employees registered with social security, but they are not counted as unemployed. There are also people who, when they stop working, are not registered as unemployed because they are not entitled to benefits.

Unemployment rose in January in all of Malaga's sectors except construction, which benefited from a small drop (-281). Construction is also the sector that has added the most contributors over the last year.

The services sector had the highest number of unemployed in January (+1,472), while industry and agriculture experienced very modest increases (+70 and +180). The number of people without previous employment, on the other hand, dropped by 319.