At the Principality of Asturias the number of registered unemployed people in August 2026 rose by 276 compared with July and now stands at 48,580. At the same time, the number of people registered as employed with the Social security increased by 2,138 to 408,400. This is according to the monthly figures published on 2 September by the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy and the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration .
The reported rise in unemployment represents an increase of 0.57 per cent on the previous month; the number of social security contributors rose by 0.53 per cent. Year on year, Asturias reports 282 more unemployed people, while employment increased by 8,947. The parallel movement in the two series is not statistically unusual: the unemployment register counts people registered as seeking work, while social security records actual employment relationships with contributions paid. Differences in recording dates, contract changes at the end of the month and seasonal effects can cause the series to diverge in the short term.
According to the Ministry of Labour, August saw the usual summer slowdown across Spain: the country lost 162,840 employed people, while the number of registered unemployed rose by 44,419. At the same time, an ongoing regularisation of foreign workers tempered the fall in jobs covered by social security compared with previous years. This effect was also seen in Asturias, where the number of contributors rose despite seasonal headwinds.
In Asturias, the regional government and business groups point to the robust development of employment since early summer. UGT Asturias warned, however, that the simultaneous rise in the unemployment register pointed to structural weaknesses in the labour market, such as temporary contracts and differences between sectors and genders. The union believes more permanent, near-full-time jobs and training programmes are needed to shorten job searches and improve the match between vacancies and jobseekers.
The short-term fluctuations are moderate. In the medium to long term, attention is focused on the services sector after the summer season, industrial order books and migration into employment. The figures now published provide a basis for this: they clearly distinguish registered unemployment from employment subject to contributions and allow one-off effects — such as late registrations and regularisations — to be considered separately. For policy assessment, the key question is whether job growth continues into the autumn and leads to more stable employment.
Editor: Mira Cadena (Article created with AI assistance).