Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 3, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleSpain's unemployment dropped below 2.5 million for the first time since 2008, with significant job growth in May, driven by the tourism sector.
MADRID (Reuters) -The number of people registered as unemployed in Spain fell in May below 2.5 million for the first time since the cusp of the financial crisis almost 17 years ago, data from the Labour Ministry showed on Tuesday.
A total of 2.45 million people were registered as unemployed, down by 57,835 from the previous month. Spain last had fewer than 2.5 million jobless people in July 2008, before the brunt of the global crisis which was exacerbated in Spain by the bursting of a real estate bubble.
"Only once have we been slightly below that level in Spain, and that's our objective for the country," Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz said in an interview with state broadcaster RNE.
Unemployment traditionally falls in Spain during the summer when the hospitality industry hires thousands of workers to serve the millions of tourists who visit the country.
Spain gained more than 190,000 net formal jobs in May, bringing the number of people with a formal job to 21.8 million, the highest level ever, a separate report from the Social Security Ministry showed.
(Reporting by Marta Serafinko in Gdansk and Javi West Larrañaga in MadridEditing by Inti Landauro and Peter Graff)
As of May, Spain has reported 2.45 million people registered as unemployed, marking a significant decrease.
Spain last had fewer than 2.5 million jobless individuals in July 2008, just before the financial crisis.
Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz stated that the goal for Spain is to maintain unemployment slightly below 2.5 million.
Spain gained over 190,000 net formal jobs in May, bringing the total number of formal jobs to 21.8 million, the highest ever recorded.
Unemployment traditionally falls in Spain during the summer due to increased hiring in the hospitality industry to accommodate tourists.
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