Spain: 64.6% of Working-Age Disabled People Still Excluded from Labour Market Despite Record Overall Employment

Summary

A major EFE wire report published 13 September 2026 reveals that six in ten (64.6%) working-age people with disabilities in Spain remain outside the labour market — a figure barely changed in a decade despite record national employment levels. Of 4.4 million people with disabilities, only about 700,000 are economically active, according to CONACEE president Albert Campabadal. The activity rate stands at just 35.4% versus 78.5% for people without disabilities (INE 2024 data), a gap of over 43 percentage points. Sheltered employment centres (centros especiales de empleo) linked to CONACEE grew from 2,104 employees in 2012 to 34,936 in 2024. Meanwhile, the Spanish government has opened public consultation on a Royal Decree regulating public-sector hiring for disabled people, with comments accepted until 15 September 2026. For employers, the story underlines that Spain's disability employment gap is structural, not cyclical, and that both mainstream and sheltered hiring pathways need strengthening.