Spanish small and medium-sized businesses are poised to maintain job creation in the third quarter of 2026, albeit at a moderate pace and with meaningful differences depending on size. This is reflected by ManpowerGroup’s Employment Outlook Study, which paints a picture of positive yet prudent growth across the business landscape.
Within the SMB segment, small businesses (10 to 49 employees) stand out as the main engine of job creation, with a net outlook of 14%, three points above the national average (11%) and notably higher than the rest of the categories. Meanwhile, medium-sized companies (50 to 249 employees) show more tempered expectations, at 7%, reflecting greater caution about the economic environment.
The most negative figure for the July–September period comes from microbusinesses (fewer than 10 employees), which show a -3% outlook, becoming the only segment predicting a net decline in employment over the next three months. This also represents a drop of 30 points from the prior quarter and 6 points from the same period in 2025.
Taken together, these results sketch a picture in which SMBs continue to contribute to job growth, but with uneven momentum and clearly conditioned by their size.
“SMBs maintain their key role in the labor market, but this quarter we’re seeing a clear duality: while medium-sized firms sustain growth, the smallest ones, especially microbusinesses, are more exposed to uncertainty,” says Luis Miguel Jiménez, CEO of Manpower Spain. “This behavior reflects the need to bolster the resilience of smaller businesses to sustain employment.”
While the trajectory aligns with the overall trend in the Spanish market, SMBs generally present more contained expectations than large corporations, which continue to show greater hiring confidence and a higher capacity to cope with the current economic environment.
SMBs in the Global Context
On the global stage, companies show an overall net employment outlook of 26%, more than double the Spanish figure (11%), with particularly solid growth among larger firms. Differences in employment-creation projections also vary by organization size, though all segments display more momentum than in Spain.
Firms with 250–999 employees and those with 1,000–4,999 employees lead the global outlook, with projections of 32% and 30%, respectively. The other segments also sit at solid levels, ranging from 24% to 17%. At the lower end, microbusinesses reappear, around 15%, though their positive outlook remains well above what is recorded in Spain.
