When you are looking for your next role after a long career, a national figure helps little if you do not know where hiring is registered, which companies take part and which functions carry the most weight. The September 2026 edition of the Executive Employment Observatory lets you look at those questions with SEPE data.
Between January and September, 38,942 contracts for management positions were registered in Spain, against 36,825 in the same period of 2025: growth of 5.7%. Contracts as a whole rose 4.8%. September registered 5,415, against 5,074 in September 2025. The cumulative figure gives context for reading the month without mistaking seasonality for a trend.
Large companies are growing almost four times faster than the rest
The figure that most separates one company from another this year is size. Large companies go from 4,902 records in January-September 2025 to 5,676 in 2026, and their share rises from 13.1% to 14.4%. Micro companies go from 11,370 to 11,617, and their share falls from 30.4% to 29.4%.
This deserves care: micro companies have not stopped hiring for management positions, they register more than last year. What happens is that they grow far more slowly, so they lose relative weight. Taking micro, small and medium together, their growth is almost four times smaller than that of large companies.
This breakdown uses a base of 39,477 records, because it includes conversions to permanent contracts. It differs from the 38,942 initial contracts used for the total, the provinces and the types of role. The sector breakdown uses that same base.
The size breakdown can only be calculated for 2025 and 2026, so this comparison describes the current year against the previous one and does not allow us to claim that the shift towards large companies is new. Nor does it say what autonomy, budget or team corresponds to each role, or whether a particular company has a vacancy right now.
Madrid and Barcelona pass half
The Community of Madrid and the province of Barcelona together account for 51.0% of the contracts for management positions registered between January and September 2026, against 49.2% in the same period of 2025. Madrid contributes 12,131 contracts and Barcelona 7,740.
For anyone searching outside those territories, the concentration is a relevant fact about how hiring is distributed. The province is that of the workplace, not the home address of the person signing. Nor does it identify whether the role allows remote work. These data alone do not justify a decision to relocate.
Outside that core there are differences. Valencia registers 1,995 contracts, 13.2% more than a year earlier; Seville, 1,023, up 12.4%; and the Balearic Islands, 1,327, down 3.4%. Volume and variation answer different questions: growing faster is not the same as registering more contracts.
Which functions appear most often
Directors of administrative and commercial departments account for 20,221 contracts, 51.9% of the total. It is a broad category covering functions such as finance, human resources, sales and marketing; the aggregate figure does not separate the weight of each.
Production and operations directors represent 22.3%, with 8,679 contracts. Management of accommodation, food service and retail accounts for 13.6%. This map helps place a functional career, but it does not measure a candidate's selection odds or give results specific to age.
Sectors describe the current distribution
Wholesale and retail trade concentrates 14.9% of the records in the sector base, followed by professional, scientific and technical activities, with 13.0%, and hospitality, with 12.1%. These are the activities of the employing company: they should not be confused with the function of the role.
What you can conclude for your search
The Observatory lets you place geography, company size and function in a single reading of the market. It does not let you cross them to claim which combination offers more opportunities. Nor does it include salaries, open vacancies or company names.
If you have spent months approaching medium-sized companies in your province without a reply, these data do not explain your case, but they do describe a market concentrating in larger companies and in two provinces. It is a question worth asking before concluding that the problem is your CV.
Contracts for management positions are counted according to the occupation declared by the company. A contract is not a person, and this statistic does not identify the special employment relationship for senior executives governed by Royal Decree 1382/1985. Its value is to give verifiable context to a search, without turning registered volume into an individual promise.
You can read the full September 2026 edition and its press release.
Source of the data: SEPE (Spanish Contract Statistics, January 2025 to September 2026). Analysis: ZenitJob Executive Employment Observatory.