A general strike with the EU's highest unemployment rate

CCOO and UGT, together with CGT, CNT, the Intersindical confederation, Solidaridad Obrera, CO.BAS, the Actors' Union and the Tenants' Union, have called a 24-hour stoppage under the slogan «Salarios. Vivienda. Precios» (Wages. Housing. Prices). It is the first nationwide general strike by the two main unions since 2012. Public broadcaster RTVE puts the number of salaried workers called to take part at around 19 million, based on the labour force survey and October's average social security affiliation.

Three countries, three labour markets

On the map, Spain is the only EU member state above 10% unemployment. Germany records 3.7%, Portugal 6.2% and France 7.5%. Spain is 2.8 times Germany and 1.7 times Portugal. Across the 27 members with data, the simple EU average is 5.76% and the median 5.75%: Spain sits 81% above that average. In Europe, outside the EU, only Montenegro (13.6%), North Macedonia (12.3%), Bosnia and Herzegovina (11%) and Albania (10.9%) rank higher.

The comparison has a limit worth fixing. The map uses ILO modelled estimates for the whole of 2025, not Spain's quarterly survey. The third-quarter 2026 labour force survey gives 10.18% and 2,591,200 unemployed; the map gives 10.4%. They are two ways of measuring the same phenomenon and should not be subtracted from each other: the first asks households, the second harmonises national series with a model. The conclusion holds under both.

Nor is the labour market in recession. The survey records 22,852,600 people in work, the highest on record, and registered unemployment falls 0.86% year on year, to 2,422,633. Average affiliation in October set another record, 22,624,165 contributors. The problem is not how many people work, but what they earn and what it costs to live.

Wages, housing and prices

The call does not stem from unemployment but from the cost of living. Collectively agreed pay rose 3.06% to October against annual inflation of 4.9%, almost two points of lost purchasing power. The unions want a 7% rise in the minimum wage for 2027, from €1,221 to around €1,306 across 14 payments. The employers' association CEOE called the stoppage electoralist, while the government defended the exercise of that right; the organisers say housing is the trigger.

The map measures unemployment, not rents or pay packets, so it does not by itself explain the strike. What it does disprove is the idea that Spanish unemployment is a legacy issue closing on its own: it remains the EU's highest and nearly double the bloc's average. Industrial action had already been rising: between January and September 587,000 social security contributors took part in strikes, more than triple a year earlier, with 1.39 million working days lost.

What comes next

The main demonstrations start at 18:00 in Madrid, from Atocha to Plaza de España, and at 17:30 in Barcelona, from Jardinets de Gràcia. The unions will give their assessment of participation at midday in Cibeles. Then come the 29 November election campaign and the negotiations over the 2027 minimum wage. The map anticipates neither; it only records the starting point.