A national register-based study confirms that Spaniards with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder continue to face massive workforce exclusion despite marginal employment gains over five years.
Researchers analyzed primary care records of over 139,000 adults with schizophrenia and 148,000 with bipolar disorder against 25.9 million other patients. In 2023, employment stood at just 15.2% for schizophrenia and 38.3% for bipolar disorder, compared to 62.5% for the general patient population.
Disability dependency remains stark. Nearly half of individuals with schizophrenia received a disability pension, alongside 26.5% of those with bipolar disorder. Only 6.3% of other diagnoses received similar benefits.
While annual employment rose slightly-2.2% for schizophrenia and 2.4% for bipolar disorder-disability pensions declined 5.5% and 7.2% annually. However, a rapid expansion of an ambiguous administrative category called “other statuses” complicates the data. Researchers warn this may signal reclassification of individuals into non-standard arrangements rather than genuine workforce integration. Sex-stratified data showed similar trends, though women saw a steeper drop in economic inactivity.
International benchmarks from Northern Europe show similarly low rates, but updated Spanish data had been scarce. The authors caution that structural barriers remain deeply entrenched, limiting functional recovery despite ongoing policy focus.