Malaga's women dominate employment growth in the province

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Employment among women grew twice as fast as among men last year, mostly thanks to the pull of the service sector

Cristina Vallejo

Tuesday, 21 April 2026, 14:54

The CCOO union presented a report on Tuesday revealing a rare phenomenon: female employment growth outpaced male employment in Malaga province last year.

Employment among women grew by 7.7% (+26,000) compared to only 4% (16,600) among men.

Salaried employment, that is, excluding self-employment, for example, increased by 8.2% among women, representing a net gain of 24,000 workers, while the increase among men was 4.3% (13,600).

This allowed the female employment rate to reach 43.5% - its highest level in the last two decades, although this is still nearly ten points below the male rate, which exceeds 52%.

There is also another downside to the data on women's participation in the labour market. "The growth in female employment has not exactly reduced unemployment among women," CCOO Employment Secretary María José Prados said at the presentation of the Malaga report. The active population is growing much faster than the Malaga labour market can absorb it. The female workforce is increasing twice as fast as the male workforce: at a rate of 7.2% (or 28,900 women) compared to 3% for men (14,200).

While male unemployment fell by 2,400 last year, female unemployment rose by 2,900. Despite its strong performance in 2025, the increase in female employment was not enough to offset the growth in the labour force. As a result, the female unemployment rate stood at 15.7%, compared to 10.5% for men. "EU forecasts indicate that we could reach full employment, with an unemployment rate of around 8%. But it seems that male unemployment could, in the near future, be closer to full employment. In the meantime, we need to do more to promote job creation among women," Prados said.

Women dominate the service sector

Part of the explanation for the dynamism of female employment in the last year lies in the sectoral composition of the province of Malaga. Employment grew in all sectors except construction, which is a predominantly male sector (-11.9%).

In contrast, the service sector showed the greatest growth, with an increase of 7.4% and 46,300 more jobs. It is worth noting that the service sector accounts for almost 95% of female employment, 20% higher than among men.

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