One number in the September jobs data refuses to move with the others: +483. That is how many more under-25s joined the unemployment register, a 6.9% rise in a month when almost everything else was falling.
The overall picture is good. According to the Ministry of Labour, as reported by RTVC and Diario de Avisos, 140,303 people were registered as unemployed in the Canaries at the end of September. That is 4,156 fewer than a month earlier (-2.9%) and 5,070 fewer than a year ago (-3.5%), the lowest figure for a September since 2007. Las Palmas province shed 2,224 and Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1,932.
Nearly all the movement comes from services, the sector that carries the tourism economy: 4,078 fewer unemployed, leaving 110,848. Construction (-200), agriculture (-176, or -7.76%) and industry (-112) follow. People with no previous job, though, rose by 410. That may explain the youth figure, since school and university leavers registering for the first time weigh on September numbers. The sources I read do not say so explicitly, so it remains a hypothesis.
Contracts tell a sturdier story. In September 69,644 were signed, 3.3% more than in September 2025. Permanent contracts came to 31,341 (+4.2% year on year) and made up 45% of the total, against 41.79% the month before. Temporary ones numbered 38,303.
The rest of Spain is useful context. In September unemployment rose in Andalusia (+6,733), Madrid (+2,773) and Galicia (+2,746), while the Canaries posted the biggest fall among the regions cited, with Ceuta and La Rioja well behind. Since 1996, Canarian unemployment has dropped in September in 23 of 30 years.
The macro backdrop fits. On 7 August the Canarian government, citing ISTAC data, reported GDP growth of 2.85% year on year in the second quarter of 2026 and an unemployment rate of 11.6%, the lowest for a second quarter since 2007. In July there were 961,638 Social Security affiliates and a record 148,107 self-employed. Deputy president Manuel Domínguez spoke of the “strength of our economic model”. Those are government statements, and 11.6% is still high against the Spanish average.
For anyone looking for work or hiring, the practical message is that the year-end season is already absorbing staff in services, while young people entering the labour market remain the weak point.
