The Spanish labour market has made considerable progress in recent years but continues to face important structural challenges. In 2023, the employment rate among people aged 15 to 64 stood at 65.3%, reflecting an increase of over four percentage points (p.p.) since 2017, despite the disruption caused by the COVID‑19 pandemic. Unemployment has also declined significantly, from 17.3% in 2017 to 12.3% in 2023, though this rate remains well above the OECD average of 5%. Labour market conditions vary markedly across regions. In 2023, unemployment exceeded 16% in regions such as the Canary Islands, Andalusia, and Extremadura, while it remained below 9% in Cantabria, Aragon, and the Basque Country. Still, unemployment rates in all Spanish regions were above the OECD average.
Active labour market policies (ALMPs) play a key role in supporting jobseekers, especially those facing greater obstacles to employment, in accessing quality jobs. Acknowledging this, Spain invests heavily in ALMPs: in 2022, public spending on ALMPs amounted to around 0.7% of GDP, significantly above the OECD average of 0.4%. Given these substantial investments, understanding which ALMPs have proven effective, in which regions, and why, is critical to building a more inclusive and resilient labour market.
The Spanish National Employment System, composed of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) and the regional Public Employment Services (regional PES), plays a central role in this context. The system ensures the development of employment policies at the national level, with responsibilities for policy design and implementation shared between SEPE and the regional PES. Within their respective territories, regional PES are responsible for developing employment policies, promoting employment, implementing labour legislation, and delivering both common programmes and those designed autonomously to respond to local labour market needs. While the effective implementation of policies takes place mainly at the territorial level, SEPE plays a key role in consolidating the annual employment plans and monitoring the efficiency and effectiveness of the system as a whole. Despite good progress in recent years, there remains room to strengthen horizontal dialogue and the exchange of good practices across the National Employment System.
It is in this context that SEPE requested technical support from the Reform and Investment Task Force of the European Commission (SG REFORM). This is the final report of the project funded by the European Union via the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) and implemented by the OECD in co‑operation with SG REFORM, titled “Strengthening policies and governance arrangements within the Spanish National Employment System”.
The project aims to strengthen Spain’s capacity to assess the performance of ALMPs through structured benchmarking. To this end, it supported the design and implementation of a qualitative assessment exercise to identify good practices across the Spanish National Employment System, including SEPE and the regional PES, for a selection of ALMPs funded under Components 23 and 19 of the Spanish Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP).
The qualitative assessment covered 38 ALMPs, 31 managed at the regional level and 7 at the national level. It combined a self-assessment by the teams in charge of management and implementation of the programmes, using a structured questionnaire with benchmarking criteria, with an OECD external assessment based on the review of self-assessment responses, programme documentation and one‑to‑one consultations with those teams. Anchored in a nine‑criterion methodology spanning the full ALMP cycle from evidence‑based design through implementation, delivery, monitoring and evaluation, the assessment exercise provides rich and comprehensive insights, for example on how systematic follow-up can sustain employment outcomes and how a holistic approach that collaborates with social services and third sector entities can enhance employability, foster social inclusion and extend access to complementary support services. This rigorous approach can be applied to any ALMP, supporting ongoing peer learning and policy refinement across the National Employment System.
Building on this comprehensive assessment exercise and the good practices identified (see Table A A.1.) at both criterion and programme levels, the report distils these insights into a set of targeted recommendations. Drawing on successful approaches from selected Spanish ALMPs that could be replicated or adapted, and addressing challenges and gaps identified during the exercise, these recommendations do not constitute an assessment of Spain’s entire ALMP system but are grounded on the findings of this focussed exercise. They are formulated at the criterion level and are intended to guide both national and regional PES in shaping the future design and implementation of ALMPs. They include:
Evidence‑based design: Embed systematic use of empirical evidence and stakeholder input from the outset by leveraging existing monitoring data and evaluations, conducting labour market analyses to define target groups and service offerings, and facilitating cross-regional peer learning through the Network of Public Centres for Counselling, Entrepreneurship Support and Innovation for Employment (Red COE) to scale up effective models.
Engaging service providers: Strengthen service quality and innovation through transparent and competitive provider selection; hybrid payment models that balance service continuity with outcome‑based incentives; robust quality assurance (including participant feedback and on-site visits); and structured knowledge‑sharing networks.
Identification and outreach to target population: Implement a comprehensive, data-driven identification strategy combining PES administrative data, linked registries from other sources, and specialised networks, alongside multi-channel, personalised outreach protocols to maximise coverage and engagement of vulnerable and hard-to-reach groups.
Assessment and referral of participants: Adopt a systematic assessment framework combining digital tools, standardised tests, counsellor expertise, and continuous reassessment, and build data-driven referral systems (e.g. through enhanced Send@ functionalities) to personalise interventions and mitigate bias.
Integrated and holistic support: Deliver co‑ordinated and individualised itineraries that also address non-employment barriers (childcare, transport, mental health, housing, etc.) through formalised partner networks and interoperable data platforms (e.g. building on SISPE and SEGISS) for real-time information sharing.
Case management and follow-up support: Assign dedicated counsellors, ensuring sufficient human resources and manageable caseloads, with clear minimum service standards and personalised action plans, involve multidisciplinary teams for complex cases, and maintain systematic follow-up with both participants and employers to sustain outcomes.
Partnership with employers: Embed structured employer engagement in programme regulations, including early labour market prospecting, co-designed training, employer-led activities, and inclusive hiring practices, supported by continuous dialogue with business networks and integration of employer input into M&E frameworks.
Monitoring and evaluation: Reinforce monitoring and evaluation by automating integrated data exchanges to enable comprehensive tracking of long-term employment outcomes alongside non-employment measures such as social integration, well-being and skill acquisition (e.g. via initiatives such as ES_DataLab); embed rigorous impact and cost-benefit evaluations, systematically collect participant and employer feedback, publish findings for accountability, and invest in staff capacity building.