The latest employment figures for Barcelona confirm the economic recovery process in the city, with a significant drop in the number of unemployed as 21,000 people have found work in the last year.

According to the Catalan Employment Service (SOC), even though unemployment among women has dropped to pre-pandemic levels, there are still more women out of work than men: 39,671 women are jobless (55.5%), compared to 31,795 men (44.5%).

Boost for employment from Barcelona Activa

The improvement in employment in the city is an important indicator when assessing the measures implemented to drive the economic recovery, an ongoing process which has seen nearly 120 million euros invested in 2020 and 2021, with a special fund to help the economy and employment. Barcelona Activa is applying labour-oriented programmes and providing support through mediation with companies, contracts and training to improve people’s professional skills. These are just some of the measures to stimulate the increase in new work contracts in the city, which have seen a year-on-year rise of 59.1% In the first half of 2021 alone, Barcelona Activa helped more than 36,000 people and 1,200 companies who requested advice.

More permanent contracts

In terms of permanent contracts there has been an increase of 57% compared to the same month last year, with accumulated contracts in the first eight months of 2021 in Barcelona reaching 492,032, of which 18% are permanent. One of the profiles which has experienced the strongest growth in permanent contracts is that of technical or scientific staff, according to data from the Work Observatory and the Fundació Barcelona FP. The observatory also notes that specialised and higher levels, such as university or vocational training, have remained the most resilient against unemployment since the Covid-19 pandemic erupted.