Badalona, 21 September 2026
In August 2026, 2,822 contracts were registered for management positions in Spain, 7.8% more than in August 2025. Between January and August they add up to 33,527, 5.6% more than in the same period of 2025.
All 8 months of 2026 so far registered more contracts for management positions than the same month of 2025.
Between January and August, contracts for management positions changed by +5.6% and all contracts by +4.9%: a difference of 0.7 percentage points. Management accounts for 0.33% of all contracts.
Madrid and Barcelona account for 50.3% of contracts for management positions in the period, against 48.6% a year earlier. The provinces with the most contracts are the Community of Madrid (10,203, +10.8%), Barcelona (6,649, +6.9%) and Valencia (1,733, +15.1%).
The subgroup with the most contracts is administrative and commercial department managers, with 51.4% of the total.
By sector, wholesale and retail trade leads with 14.9% of contracts, followed by professional, scientific and technical activities (13.0%) and accommodation and food service (12.5%). SEPE changed its sector classification in January 2026 (CNAE-2025), so this breakdown is not compared with 2025.
62.2% of contracts were signed in companies with up to 50 employees (63.2% a year earlier), and 13.9% in companies with 250 or more (13.0%).
84.3% of contracts for management positions were permanent (84.3% a year earlier), and women signed 39.8% of them (39.3% in 2025).
«Executive hiring is concentrating again in Madrid and Barcelona, as in 2016 and 2017. For anyone looking for a management role outside those two provinces, that changes the strategy.», says Ignacio Tomé, of ZenitJob.
How to read these figures: a contract is not a person (one person can sign several); the province is that of the workplace, so headquarters effects can raise Madrid's share; and each month is only compared with the same month of the previous year, because of strong seasonality.
Method: SEPE Contracts Statistics, tables 19.1M and 2.3M; management occupations are group 1 of the CNO-11 (subgroups 11 to 15). Each month is only used if its provinces add up exactly to the national total and two different SEPE tables give the same figure: 20 of 20 months verified.
Source: SEPE (Contracts Statistics, January 2025 – August 2026). Analysis: ZenitJob Executive Employment Observatory.
Direct links
- Full report: zenitjob.com/observatorio-empleo-directivo-2026-08-en.html
- Chart: Share of Madrid and Barcelona in contracts for management positions, Jan–Aug 2025 and 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-08-mitad-en.png?v=465f699dc5
- Chart: Contracts for management positions, each month against the same month of 2025: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-08-meses-en.png?v=2cc2873224
- Chart: The eight provinces with the most contracts for management positions, Jan–Aug 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-08-provincias-en.png?v=07a9c79b19
- Chart: Contracts for management positions by type of role, Jan–Aug 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-08-puestos-en.png?v=b4ff4e9903
- Chart: Contracts for management positions by sector, Jan–Aug 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-08-sectores-en.png?v=5ff48a0e4c
- Chart: Contracts for management positions by company size, Jan–Aug 2025 and 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-08-tamano-en.png?v=f439040b91
- Data for the 52 provinces (CSV): zenitjob.com/observatorio-provincias-2026-08.csv?v=aaffa2e3cc
- Sources, method and checks: zenitjob.com/observatorio-empleo-directivo-en.html#metodologia
- Press release in Spanish: zenitjob.com/observatorio-empleo-directivo-2026-08-nota-prensa.html
About the Observatory
The Executive Employment Observatory analyses every month, with official SEPE data and always with the same method, the contracts registered in Spain for management positions: how many, where, in which roles and on what terms. It is an initiative of ZenitJob, a job search support programme for senior executives.
Press contact: Ignacio Tomé · info@zenitjob.com