Spain's July jobless claims rise by 19,517 as migrant regularisation pushes Social Security affiliation past 22.5 million

Spain's labour market delivered a split picture in July 2026. Registered unemployment rose by 19,517 people (+0.85%) to 2.31 million, breaking a three-month run of falling joblessness, according to data published by the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy on 4 August. At the same time, Social Security affiliation hit a new high, exceeding 22.5 million workers, an increase the government and several trade unions linked directly to the extraordinary regularisation process for migrants.

The regularisation effect

The regularisation drive has generated roughly 258,000 applications, of which 46,839 people had been regularised by early August, according to Josep Ginesta, secretary general of the Catalan employers' association Pimec. Ginesta noted that only about 30% of the files have been processed so far, predicting further affiliation gains in the coming months. He described part of the rise in unemployment among people without previous occupation (the SOE group) not as job destruction but as an administrative side-effect of the regularisation procedure.

Se han presentado prácticamente 258.000 solicitudes de regularización.

Comisiones Obreras (CCOO) echoed that view, stating that the regularisation process had caused foreign-worker affiliation to surge and calling the goal of full employment "cada vez más posible." Carmen Vidal, CCOO's confederal secretary for Institutional Participation, noted that youth unemployment had also reached historic lows.

No podemos olvidar que el paro juvenil ha sido un mal endémico de nuestro mercado laboral las últimas cuatro décadas.

Regional divergence

The national increase masked sharp regional differences. Catalonia recorded the largest absolute rise, adding 7,705 unemployed (+2.51%) to reach 314,874, followed by the Valencian Community (+7,021) and Madrid (+3,822). Andalusia bucked the trend with a drop of 9,661, while Extremadura (-767) and Cantabria (-250) also saw declines.

Cantabria's regional government highlighted that its 26,355 unemployed represented the best July figure since 2008. Eduardo Arasti, the regional minister for Industry and Employment, stressed that the number of Social Security affiliates reached 248,580, a historic high for any July, and that unemployment fell across all age groups and sectors.

Nunca ha habido más afiliados en Cantabria en un mes de julio.

Navarre posted its fourth consecutive monthly employment record, with 323,313 affiliates, though unemployment edged up by 538 people, a rise the regional government attributed almost entirely to the regularisation process.

Seasonal patterns and sector shifts

Several actors pointed to seasonal dynamics. In La Rioja, where unemployment rose by 386 people (+3.21%), the regional employment director Cristina Salinas described the increase as "estacional," driven by the end of the school year. Education-related activities added 199 unemployed, while food and beverage services shed 24.

In Catalonia, UGT highlighted the loss of 23,258 Social Security affiliations in education alongside gains of 12,026 in commerce and 8,087 in hospitality, calling it evidence of "alta estacionalidad." The union demanded active employment policies tailored to the long-term unemployed, people over 45, young people, and vulnerable groups.

Precariousness and gender gap concerns

CCOO's Asturias branch warned of a "doble lectura" in the data. Lucía Montejo, the union's employment lead, said the concentration of hiring in hospitality and commerce via temporary contracts was progressively replacing quality jobs with more precarious ones. She noted that one in four registered jobseekers already had a job but were looking for another because their current position offered insufficient stability.

Una de cada cuatro personas inscritas como demandantes de empleo tiene trabajo, pero está buscando otro.

The gender gap remained stark. CCOO nationally flagged that the employment created was predominantly male while female employment was being destroyed. In Castilla-La Mancha, the CSIF union reported that women still accounted for 65.07% of the region's 114,696 unemployed, despite a slight decline in female joblessness in three provinces. CSIF also renewed its demand for the regional government to reclaim over €56.2 million in subsidies granted to CCOO and UGT since 2014.