Badalona, 8 October 2026
In September 2026, 5,415 contracts were registered for management positions in Spain, 6.7% more than in September 2025. Between January and September they add up to 38,942, 5.7% more than in the same period of 2025.
All 9 months of 2026 so far registered more contracts for management positions than the same month of 2025.
Between January and September, contracts for management positions changed by +5.7% and all contracts by +4.8%: a difference of 0.9 percentage points. Management accounts for 0.33% of all contracts.
Madrid and Barcelona account for 51.0% of contracts for management positions in the period, against 49.2% a year earlier. The provinces with the most contracts are the Community of Madrid (12,131, +11.4%), Barcelona (7,740, +6.8%) and Valencia (1,995, +13.2%).
The subgroup with the most contracts is administrative and commercial department managers, with 51.9% 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 (12.1%). SEPE changed its sector classification in January 2026 (CNAE-2025), so this breakdown is not compared with 2025.
61.6% of contracts were signed in companies with up to 50 employees (62.9% a year earlier), and 14.4% in companies with 250 or more (13.1%).
84.4% of contracts for management positions were permanent (84.2% a year earlier), and women signed 39.7% of them (39.4% in 2025).
«The executive market is not frozen, it is moving. It is growing where there was already structure, and that changes who you should be approaching.», 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: 21 of 21 months verified.
Source: SEPE (Contracts Statistics, January 2025 – September 2026). Analysis: ZenitJob Executive Employment Observatory.
Direct links
- Full report: zenitjob.com/observatorio-empleo-directivo-2026-09-en.html
- Chart: Share of Madrid and Barcelona in contracts for management positions, Jan–Sep 2025 and 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-09-mitad-en.png?v=ec09667662
- Chart: Contracts for management positions, each month against the same month of 2025: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-09-meses-en.png?v=a3753d24b2
- Chart: The eight provinces with the most contracts for management positions, Jan–Sep 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-09-provincias-en.png?v=81ebbc1fe0
- Chart: Contracts for management positions by type of role, Jan–Sep 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-09-puestos-en.png?v=a1d1bd3f78
- Chart: Contracts for management positions by sector, Jan–Sep 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-09-sectores-en.png?v=6ece9756f6
- Chart: Contracts for management positions by company size, Jan–Sep 2025 and 2026: zenitjob.com/img/observatorio/2026-09-tamano-en.png?v=bcfcf6347a
- Data for the 52 provinces (CSV): zenitjob.com/observatorio-provincias-2026-09.csv?v=3cb1cb0a9a
- Sources, method and checks: zenitjob.com/observatorio-empleo-directivo-en.html#metodologia
- Press release in Spanish: zenitjob.com/observatorio-empleo-directivo-2026-09-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