The city of Sabadell ended July with 10,484 people unemployed, an increase of 193 compared to the previous month. The unemployment rate now stands at 9.21%. This figure puts an end to four consecutive months of declines in the job seeker lists. Despite this monthly increase, year-on-year data shows an improvement, with 172 fewer unemployed people than in July of the previous year, when 10,656 individuals were registered.
The upward trend in unemployment is also reflected in the Vallès Occidental region, where unemployment rose by 922 people during July. Cities such as Terrassa experienced an increase of 277 unemployed, Sant Cugat and Rubí each added 94 new registrants, and Cerdanyola recorded 68. Compared to last year, the region as a whole shows 1,421 fewer unemployed.
At the Catalan level, unemployment grew by 7,705 people in July, reaching 314,000 individuals. However, it remains the July with the fewest unemployed since 2007. All provinces saw an increase in unemployment compared to June, with Lleida standing out with a 3.4% rise. In the year-on-year comparison, only Lleida shows an increase in unemployment (+2%), while Girona (-4.2%), Tarragona (-1.6%), and Barcelona (-1.3%) are reducing their figures.
Nationally, unemployment rose by 19,517 people in July, exceeding 2.3 million individuals. Only Andalusia, Extremadura, and Cantabria registered decreases. Catalonia leads the absolute increase (+7,705), followed by the Valencian Community (+7,021) and Madrid (+3,822).
The Secretary of Labour, Paco Ramos, indicated that it is still too early to assess the impact of the extraordinary regularization of immigrants on employment affiliation. Despite the 257,000 applications submitted in Catalonia, definitive admission and resolution data are not yet known. Ramos anticipates that the effects will be noticeable between September and October, stating that the process will "surely" have a positive impact on affiliation, as "we have regularized people so that the jobs they were doing can subsequently be regularized."
