Spanish unemployment creeps up as services lose steam

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks at the European Council meeting in Brussels on October 23, 2025. [AFP]

Spanish unemployment crept up in the third quarter as the dynamic economy's service sector shed seasonally dependent jobs, official data showed on Friday.

The jobless rate in one of the world's fastest-growing developed economies was 10.45 percent from July to September, up from 10.29 percent in the preceding quarter, the National Statistics Institute announced.

Services, which include many short-term jobs in the important tourism and hospitality industries that end after the summer holiday season, accounted for most of the increase in unemployment, alongside agriculture.

The change produced a clear gender disparity, with unemployment among men falling to 8.97 percent but climbing to 12.11 percent for women.

But the number of people in work rose by 118,400 to reach a total of 22,387,100, which Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez hailed on X as Spain "again showing its strength".

The European Union's fourth-largest economy has been outperforming its peers, recording 3.5 percent growth in 2024 compared with a one-percent EU average.

This year the jobless rate has reached its lowest levels since the 2008 global financial crisis but remains the highest in the 27-nation bloc.

The leftist government has targeted bringing it down to around eight percent by the end of its term in 2027, which it says corresponds to full employment.