The Almanzora Valley ends August with 2,733 unemployed, the lowest figure for that month since 2008
There are 160 fewer unemployed people than a year ago, and 18 of the 27 municipalities have improved. The services sector accounts for six in ten of those out of work.
Automatic translation: this article was translated with artificial intelligence from the original in Spanish. Read the original
The Almanzora Valley ended August with 2,733 people registered as unemployed at employment offices, 160 fewer than a year ago. That is a fall of 5.5% and leaves the lowest figure for any August since 2008, according to State Public Employment Service (SEPE) data by municipality, which elValle Actualidad has analysed town by town.
- 2,733 people out of work in the Valley’s 27 municipalities in August
- −5.5% in a year: 160 fewer unemployed than in August 2025
- 18 of 27 municipalities have less unemployment than a year ago
To see how far things have come, you only need to look back: in August 2014 the Valley reached 5,418 unemployed, almost twice as many as now. Since then, the figure has kept falling summer after summer, with the sole exception of 2020, the year of the pandemic.
Compared with July, unemployment rose by 59 people (2.2%). This is a normal movement for the time of year: over the last five years, unemployment in the Valley rose by an average of 1.5% in August.
The Valley’s improvement is somewhat slower than that of the province as a whole. In Almería, unemployment fell by 8.6% in a year to 39,773 people, its best August figure since 2007, according to the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy. Across Spain, August ended with 2,355,918 unemployed, also the lowest figure for that month since 2007.
Town by town
The drop in unemployment extends to 18 of the 27 municipalities. In terms of the number of people, the biggest falls are in Olula del Río (33 fewer unemployed), Tíjola (28), Arboleas (15), and Macael and Fines (14 each). At the other end, unemployment rises in Oria (6 more), Serón (5), Alcóntar (3) and Cóbdar (1), and stays the same in Albánchez, Chercos, Líjar, Partaloa and Somontín.
Albox, the municipality with the most residents, has 666 unemployed, 13 fewer than a year ago. Between them, Albox, Olula del Río, Macael and Tíjola account for 61% of the district’s unemployment. In the small villages, a few people make the percentages move a lot: in Sierro unemployment falls by 25% and in Suflí by 22%, although that amounts to 7 and 5 fewer people respectively.
Who is looking for work in the Valley
Six in ten of the Valley’s unemployed (62%) had been working in services, the sector where unemployment has fallen most over the year: 139 fewer people. It is also down in construction (49 fewer) and in agriculture (16 fewer), while in industry it is up slightly (8 more). By contrast, the group of people looking for their first job is growing: some 297 people, 28 more than in August 2025.
The face of unemployment in the Valley is still that of a woman and of someone over 45: women make up 57% of the unemployed, and 58% of those looking for work are aged 45 or over. Under-25s make up 7%.
The figures for your town
These are the people out of work in each municipality in August, and how the figure has changed compared with July and with August last year.
| Municipality | Unemployed | Over a month | Over a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albánchez | 22 | +2 | = |
| Albox | 666 | +8 | −13 (−2%) |
| Alcóntar | 16 | = | +3 (+23%) |
| Arboleas | 93 | = | −15 (−14%) |
| Armuña de Almanzora | 23 | = | −1 (−4%) |
| Bacares | 7 | +1 | −1 (−13%) |
| Bayarque | 7 | −3 | −5 (−42%) |
| Cantoria | 163 | −6 | −10 (−6%) |
| Chercos | 15 | +2 | = |
| Cóbdar | 9 | +3 | +1 (+13%) |
| Fines | 131 | +8 | −14 (−10%) |
| Laroya | 10 | +1 | −3 (−23%) |
| Líjar | 23 | = | = |
| Lúcar | 48 | +2 | −10 (−17%) |
| Macael | 354 | +17 | −14 (−4%) |
| Olula del Río | 483 | +15 | −33 (−6%) |
| Oria | 74 | +3 | +6 (+9%) |
| Partaloa | 13 | +2 | = |
| Purchena | 78 | +3 | −2 (−3%) |
| Serón | 100 | +1 | +5 (+5%) |
| Sierro | 21 | = | −7 (−25%) |
| Somontín | 17 | = | = |
| Suflí | 18 | +1 | −5 (−22%) |
| Taberno | 34 | +2 | −7 (−17%) |
| Tíjola | 170 | −1 | −28 (−14%) |
| Urrácal | 17 | +2 | −2 (−11%) |
| Zurgena | 121 | −4 | −5 (−4%) |
| Almanzora Valley | 2,733 | +59 | −160 (−5.5%) |
Every month, elValle Actualidad will review unemployment in the 27 municipalities so that you can follow how employment is changing in your town.
How we did it
We have added up the registered unemployment data by municipality that SEPE publishes every month on its open data portal for the 27 municipalities of the Almanzora Valley, and we have compared them with the previous month and with the same month in previous years. The municipal series begins in 2006, and SEPE has no data from May to December 2013.
Registered unemployment counts people without work who are registered as jobseekers at public employment offices. It is not the unemployment rate from the Labour Force Survey (Encuesta de Población Activa). Each person is counted in the municipality where they live.
To protect privacy, SEPE does not give figures below five in the breakdowns by sex, age or sector, so those totals for the Valley are approximate. We do not calculate unemployment rates by town: with so many retired residents, dividing by the population would give a misleading picture. The figures for the province and for Spain are the official ones from the Ministry of Labour and Social Economy.
