Social Security enrolment hit an all-time high of 781,211 workers in June, with the province's job market growing nearly four times faster than the Spanish average over the past year
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03/07/2026 a las 18:44h.Official figures released at the end of June reveal that Malaga province's total number of registered unemployed has finally dipped below the six-figure ... mark for the first time in more than 18 years, falling to 99,084.
It's a milestone that arguably should have arrived much sooner, given the region’s economic momentum, which has created more than 220,000 jobs since 2016. Yet Malaga has finally shaken off a historical burden that has dogged the Costa del Sol since January 2008, the fateful month Spain's property bubble burst and triggered a collapse of the labour market.
It represents a dramatic turnaround for the province; during the nadir of the financial crisis in February 2016, unemployment peaked at an all-time high of 218,471. Even as recently as early 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the figure back above 200,000, meaning local joblessness has effectively been halved in just five years.
While June’s individual drop of 3,123 was modest, it caps off a highly successful spring of consistent declines. Over the last 12 months, the province has trimmed its unemployment queues by 10,925 people, representing a year-on-year decrease of nearly 10 per cent.
"These figures prove we are not just looking at a temporary seasonal blip, but rather a sustained trend of business activity and robust job creation," said Natalia Sánchez, executive vice-president of the Malaga Confederation of Employers (CEM).
Malaga outperforms the rest of Spain
The figures cement a remarkably dynamic period for the province. Following successive hiring surges across March, April and May, Malaga added a further 9,917 workers to the payrolls in June. This brings the total number of Social Security contributors to a record high of 781,211, putting the province within striking distance of the 800,000-person milestone.
Malaga’s labour market is comfortably outperforming both regional and national averages. While unemployment fell by 1.24 per cent across Spain and 2.12 per cent across wider Andalucía, Malaga recorded a 3.06 per cent drop.
The divergence is even more stark in terms of net job creation. Malaga’s 1.29 per cent rise in employment stood in sharp contrast to Andalucía as a whole, which actually shed 13,887 jobs in June as agricultural contracts wound down in rural provinces like Huelva and Almeria. Nationally, the average job growth rate was a more modest 0.58 per cent.
Services still driving growth
Unsurprisingly, the service sector remains the absolute backbone of the local economy. Driven by peak-season summer hiring across the hospitality and tourism sectors, services led June's employment charge, accounting for 2,422 of the month's newly employed. However, the sector still bears the brunt of the region's remaining jobless total, accounting for 72,015 of those out of work.
By contrast, construction saw a drop of 143 unemployed, followed by industry (down 135) and agriculture (down 56).
The data also highlighted a persistent gender imbalance in the local economy. Six out of ten unemployed people in the province are women, who make up 59,926 of the total compared to 39,158 men.
Warnings
Despite the celebratory headlines, local business leaders and unions have urged caution. The CEM pointed out that the gap between the rise in social security registrations (nearly 10,000) and the net fall in unemployment (just over 3,000) highlights Spain's heavy reliance on 'fijos discontinuos' (permanent, seasonal contracts common in tourism, where workers are laid off during off-peak months).
"We need greater transparency and granularity in our national labour statistics," said Natalia Sánchez of the CEM, calling for clearer data to better tailor employment policies to actual market realities.
That said, the CEM's outlook for the coming months remains upbeat. "July and August are traditionally job-creation months in Malaga, and with a tourist season that's expected to go well, we're confident unemployment can keep falling," said Sánchez.
"We need to keep encouraging business activity and investment, while also strengthening training, career guidance and the link between what companies need and the skills that are available, so this growth turns into more jobs, and more stable ones," she concluded.
María José Prados, employment secretary at CC OO (Comisiones Obreras, one of Spain's largest trade unions) in Malaga, also welcomed the fall in unemployment and the rise in employment, but called for "more focus on the problems of housing and mobility, which are already limiting further growth in the province's labour market."