The number of unemployed people registered at the Public Service of State Employment (SEPE) Office in Melilla, at the end of March, stands at 8,752. These are 114 people less than the previous month (-1.29%) and 65 unemployed less than a year ago (-0.74%).
The Provincial Director of the SEPE, Jorge Vera, who has appeared before the media, has pointed out that normally, Melilla, “is willing to increase recruitment, starting in March, especially in the services sector, since, among other factors, Holy Week is approaching and is a tonic that is usually maintained for months.”
In fact, he recalled that, historically, the months of January and February are the worst of the year in terms of employment, both in the country as a whole and in Melilla, a situation that is usually reversed from this month of March.
But, in addition, the head of the Provincial Directorate of the SEPE has referred to the “very large annual investment” that the Government of Spain makes in active employment policies in our city, with 36 million euros that are destined to promote autonomous employment and self-employment, to programs dedicated to vulnerable groups, such as women in rural and urban areas, people with disabilities in the regular and protected market, experiential programs that are being implemented in Ciudad Autónoma, and that is a grant given by the Government of Spain, Escuela Taller, the MUR program…
Vera has pointed out that although the Employment Plans are the active policies that are most talked about, the contracts that have been signed so far are around 70 while the registered unemployment drop is 114 people so “the drop in unemployment reflects greater data”. For this reason, it has influenced all the active policies carried out by the Public Service of State Employment in Melilla, which “is an investment that is noticeable in the city”.
With regard to the actual data recorded, by economic sector, the Services sector is the sector in which the number of claimants has decreased the most, with 98 fewer people, with 17 unemployed persons registering less No Previous Employment, and 5 fewer in the Construction sector, while in Industry and Agriculture the number of job seekers has increased by 3 each.
With regard to Social Security data, the number of participants stood at 24,667, which represents an increase of 238 (0.97%) compared to the previous month and 117 more participants (0.47%) compared to April 2024. Specifically, in the General System there are 20,239 members; 4,344 members in the Autonomous System; and 83 members in the Sea System.
Upload the hiring
With regard to the number of contracts that have materialized over the past month, the figure amounts to 1,255, which is 449 more than in February (55.71%).
The Provincial Director of SEPE has highlighted the fact that out of the total number of recruitments 528 have been indefinite, which means 42%, following the same line as what happens in the national average.
“Indefinite hiring is maintained month by month above 40% of hiring, which makes contracts much more stable, which was one of the objectives of this Government,” he said and recalled that before the labor reform indefinite hiring did not exceed 8%.
As Vera has detailed, in terms of registered unemployment, it refers, according to sex, to women with 5,615 unemployed, which represents 64.16%, compared to 3,137 unemployed men, which represents 35.84%. And, as far as minors under the age of 25 are concerned, there are 975 unemployed.
As far as unemployment benefits are concerned, in the autonomous city there are 2,807 beneficiaries either of contributory benefit (1,245 beneficiaries), Allowance (1,404 beneficiaries) or Active Insertion Income (158 beneficiaries) and the average amount received per beneficiary is 1,004 euros per month.
National data
The head of the Provincial Directorate of the SEPE has also echoed the national data, where, at the end of March, the number of unemployed people has decreased by 13,311 people in relation to the previous month (-0.51%). In this way, the registered unemployment has reached 2,580,138 below the level of 2.6 million people in unemployment.
Compared to March 2024, year-on-year unemployment fell by 146,865 people (-5.39%). It should be remembered that, in 2025, unlike the previous year, March still does not benefit from the effects of contracting in Holy Week and, on the contrary, is weighed down by adverse weather phenomena.
By economic sectors, the registered unemployment fell in Services by 14,461 people (-0.77%), in Industry by 1,498 people (-0.75%), in Construction by 909 (-0.48%) and in Agriculture by 93 people (-0.11%).
In terms of unemployment by sex and age, female unemployment decreased by 9,176 women (-0.59%) in relation to the month of February and stood at 1,553,778. Male unemployment also fell by 4,135 men (-0.40%) compared to the previous month to 1,026,360.
In year-on-year terms, female unemployment fell by 78,779 women (-4.83%) and male unemployment fell by 68,086 men (-6.22%). In March, unemployment among young people under the age of 25 rose by 2,638 (1.35%) compared to the previous month. The total number of unemployed young people this month, 197,524, is the lowest in the historical series in a month of March.
The total number of contracts registered during the month of March has been 1,166,601. Of these, 508,662 employment contracts are of an indefinite nature, accounting for 43.60% of all contracts. This percentage reaffirms the scenario of stability in the contracting of the labor market.
In terms of benefits, the total number of beneficiaries and beneficiaries available at the end of the month was 1,722,042. The average gross amount of the contributory benefit received per beneficiary person during the month of February 2025 was 1,014.5 euros, which means an increase of 29.9 euros over the same month of the previous year (3.0%). The total expenditure amounted to 2,185.20 million euros.