Record job vacancies in Spain: 159,785 in a single quarter
Spain just recorded 159,785 open job vacancies in one quarter, an all-time high. What a record number of open positions means for the teams that fill them.
Spain has never had this many jobs open at once. In the first quarter of 2026, employers across the country were trying to fill 159,785 positions, according to the national statistics office (INE). It is the highest figure in any quarter since the series began in 2013, and 6,900 more than a year earlier.
A decade of climbing
The record is not a one-off spike. Open vacancies have risen almost without pause for a decade, from under 55,000 in early 2014 to nearly three times that today. The only real interruption was a plateau around the pandemic, between 2019 and 2021. Since 2022 the line has climbed steadily to this year’s peak.
Where the openings are
Almost all of them sit in services: 86.6% of the vacancies are in sectors like logistics, hospitality, retail and customer support. Those are exactly the high-volume, high-turnover roles where a single opening can draw hundreds of applications, and where a company is rarely filling just one seat at a time.
What a record means for the people who fill the jobs
A vacancy is not just a line in a survey. Each one is a pipeline: a job to advertise, a stack of applications to read, a shortlist to interview, an offer to land before the candidate takes another one. Having 159,785 of them open at the same time is a record amount of that work arriving on recruiting teams, and the applications hitting each of those roles are climbing just as fast.
Do the arithmetic and the squeeze is plain. More roles open than ever, more applications per role than ever, and hiring teams that have not grown to match. Either the process slows and good candidates walk, or the screening and first interviews stop being done one by one.
That is the case for reaching candidates on the channel they actually answer and holding a real first conversation with all of them, not the handful there was time to call. A record like this one does not ease off next quarter. The teams that stay ahead of it will be the ones that stopped trying to clear it by hand.
Frequently asked questions
- How many job vacancies are there in Spain?
- In the first quarter of 2026, Spain recorded 159,785 unfilled job vacancies, the highest figure in any quarter since the INE series began in 2013, and 6,900 more than a year earlier.
- Why are there so many unfilled vacancies in Spain?
- It reflects record hiring demand rather than a hiring breakdown. INE's own data shows most companies leave vacancies open because they do not need more workers yet. The number of open roles is simply at an all-time high.
- Which sectors have the most vacancies?
- Services dominate: 86.6% of the vacancies are in sectors like logistics, hospitality, retail and customer support, the high-volume, high-turnover roles.
Sources
Start screening
talent instantly.
Spin up Hirevoice on a single role this week. We'll help you set the rubric and run your first batch of interviews live with you.
Book a demoKeep reading
HiringWhat a bad hire really costs (up to 3x the salary)
A bad hire can cost 1.5 to 3 times the salary, over €100,000 for a mid-level manager. Why the real cost is a weak process, and how to cut the risk.
HiringRecruiters spend about 7 seconds on your CV
Eye-tracking studies put a recruiter's first look at a CV at about 7 seconds, most of it on six surface facts. Why a skim is not an evaluation, and what is.
ComparisonHireVue, Paradox & Amazon alternatives for Spain and LatAm
HireVue, Paradox and Amazon built their AI interviewers for the US. A side-by-side look at what changes when the product is designed for Spain and LatAm.