Spain, surge in employment in the tourism sector: over 3 million employed

Positive news on the employment front in Spain, where, for the first time, the tourism sector has surpassed 3 million jobs. This milestone, achieved in the third quarter of 2024, is confirmed by data from the Labor Force Survey (EPA), compiled by Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) and reported by Turespaña, the Spanish tourism authority.

According to the INE report, during summer 2024 (July-September), the Spanish economy added 557,000 jobs compared to the previous season, with 67,231 (+12.1%) of these in the tourism sector alone. This growth allowed employment in tourism to exceed the 3-million mark, reaching the historic total of 3,019,064 jobs, which represents 13.8% of Spain’s total employment.

Hospitality, food service, and transport lead the way

Employment rose in the primary tourism activities (accommodations, food service, and transport), while it declined (-3.2%) in “other tourism-related activities”. Employment in the hotel and restaurant sector grew by 3.3%, due to positive trends in accommodation services (+1.8%) and food services (+3.9%). The passenger transport sector registered a 9.2% increase year-on-year, while travel agencies saw an 11.7% decline in employment. From a different perspective, the unemployment rate in 2024 remained stable at 8.1% compared to the same quarter in 2023, lower than Spain’s overall unemployment rate of 11.2%.

Permanent contracts grow 4.3%

The number of salaried workers grew to 2,550,911 (+2.3%), continuing a trend of year-over-year increases for the thirteenth consecutive quarter. Permanent employment in the tourism sector (80.6%) rose by 4.3% year-over-year, marking the 13th consecutive increase, while temporary employment fell by 5.1%. The temporary employment rate (temporary contracts as a percentage of all employment) in tourism stood at 19.4%, down from 20.9% a year ago.

Regarding working hours, full-time employees made up 79.4% of the workforce, increasing by 4.3%, while part-time employment decreased by 4.6% and accounted for 20.6% of all employees. There were 467,629 self-employed workers in tourism, up 2% from the same period last year, with increases in hospitality and food service (+2.8%) and passenger transport (+17.8%), but a decline in other tourism-related activities (-10.7%).

The situation in the autonomous communities

Looking at regional data, the Autonomous Communities with the most significant increase in employment were Catalonia, with 561,972 workers (+9.4%); Andalusia, with 476,749 (+0.2%); Madrid, with 461,633 (+8.8%); and the Valencian Community, with 308,188 (+3.6%).

The Autonomous Communities with the highest tourism traffic (Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Andalusia, Valencian Community, and Madrid) also generated the most tourism jobs, collectively accounting for 75.5% of the sector’s total employment in the third quarter.