Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Spain reported an increase of nearly 46,000 employees in the first quarter of 2018, according to a report from the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium Enterprises (CEPYME) in collaboration with Randstad.

The report showed that overall the number of employed persons increased by more than 22,000 in the first quarter with SMEs driving the growth, adding 45,900 jobs while large companies saw a decrease of more than 23,600 employees during the same period.

During 2017, the average annual growth of employment in SMEs stood at 4.2%, with growth seen in sectors such as construction, services (especially hospitality and wholesale), public administration, health and education.

Per the report, by business size, micro-enterprises (from 1 to 9 employees) saw more than 9,600  employees added in the Spanish economy during 2017. Most of the new employees were in the food and beverage services industry and in the construction industry.

For small businesses (from 10 to 49 employees), there were more than 21,800 employees added in 2017. Meanwhile, medium-sized companies (from 50 to 249 employees), have seen an increase of more than 14,400 employees. Most of the jobs were in the tertiary sector, public administration, wholesale trade, education, specialized construction, and programming and consulting activities.

Eurostat reports that Spain’s unemployment rate stood at 15.9% in April.