Tourism employment exceeds 3 million after rising by 2.2% in the third quarter of 2025

In the third quarter of 2025, the tourism sector registered 3,085,831 employed workers, which represents an increase of 2.2% with respect to the same period in 2024, according to data from the INE's Labour Force Survey used by Turespaña.

Between July and September 2025, tourism-related activities recorded 66,768 more employees than in the same quarter of the previous year. During this quarter, employees in the tourism sector accounted for 13.8% of total employment in the Spanish economy.

In addition, the unemployment rate in the tourism sector stood at 7.5%, 0.6 percentage points lower than the same day of the previous year. In the national economy, the unemployment rate stood at 10.5%.

The number of employees continues to grow

In the third quarter of the year, the main tourism activities experienced growth, except for hotels and restaurants. In this subsector, employment fell by -1.6% due to the negative evolution of food and beverage services (-3.4%). In travel agencies, however, the variation was positive, 8.7%, as in passenger transport (up 0.3%).

The number of employees in the tourism sector during this period amounted to 2,643,063, which is a significant year-on-year increase of 3.6%. This continues the year-on-year increases of the previous seventeen quarters. These employees reflect increases in passenger transport (3.7%) as well as in other tourism activities (13.3%). Within other tourism activities, travel agencies experienced an increase of 1.1%. The employment rate (salaried/employed) was 85.7%, 1.1 percentage points higher than in the third quarter of the previous year.

Full time employment also on the rise

The number of employees in the tourism sector on permanent contracts (80.9%) increased by 4% year-on-year, representing the 17th consecutive increase. Furthermore, the number of employees with temporary contracts was up by 2.1%.

In this regard, the temporary employment rate (employees with temporary contracts/total employees) in the tourism sector was 19.1%, 0.3 percentage points lower than in the same period of the previous year. In terms of working hours, full-time employees accounted for 78% of all employees, a 1.9% increase.

The number of self-employed workers in the tourism sector stood at 442,587, down 5.4% compared to the same period of the previous year, with decreases in hospitality (-9.2%) and passenger transport (-11.6%) and an increase in other tourism activities (13.4%).

Andalusia, the fastest growing region

In terms of territorial distribution, the number of employees increased in ten autonomous communities. Among the main regions, the number of employed people grew in Madrid by 8.6%, in Andalusia by 16%, in Valencia by 3.2%, in the Balearic Islands by 0.7%, and in the Canary Islands by 4.1%, while it fell in Catalonia by 11.9%.

Non official translation