Unemployment and employment data for November showed that the labor market continued to resist this Monday, despite the difficult situation. Rising interest rates, a recession in the eurozone and inflation that is still high are being felt in a job that so far has seemed to forge ahead undaunted by challenges. Overall, Spain created a seasonally adjusted 10,300 jobs, much lower than other Novembers but positive and higher than the figure for October this year.

From their side, there are fewer unemployed people in 24,573 people, before reaching 2.7 million general. This is the lowest level recorded this month since 2007, and is also a surprise since the unemployment rate usually rises in November. The same statistics from the Ministry of Labor – different from those from the Ministry of Social Security – show that 562,466 new contracts were signed during the month at the end of the period.

7% less than a year ago

In this case, 35% of contracts signed are permanent intermittent contracts, which is significantly lower than the 60% achieved a few months ago, as well as previous months and years. Just in November of this year they signed 196,274 new intermittent permanent contracts, 7% less than a month ago, and also 7% less than a year ago. On the other hand, 233,918 permanent full-time contracts and 132,274 permanent part-time contracts were signed. The number of temporary contracts that were signed was 800,000.

It is worth remembering that the intermittent permanent contract is a variation of the open-ended contract, which already existed, but the latest labor reform, approved in December 2021, has strengthened cancel contracts for works and services. Moreover, this contractual modality is controversial, partly due to unfounded allegations of concealment of unemployment data (intermittent permanent workers are not considered unemployed even if they are inactive, since they are contract workers), but also because many companies may resort to them on fraudulent terms.

In this case, the drop in the share of new contracts is due to the boom they experienced last year intermittent permanent contracts, especially since they have largely replaced outdated temporary contracts for work and services. But the work of the Labor Inspectorate also played a fundamental role in regulating thousands of fraudulent intermittent permanent contracts. The overall slowdown in employment must be taken into account, as 16% fewer contracts were created in November this year than in November 2022.

The problem of intermittent fixed

Intermittent permanent contracts are, on paper, open-ended contracts, and the Bank of Spain itself has tested the impact that moving from temporary to permanent contracts has on people’s lives. According to the manager and his report Increase in permanent contracts and its possible impact on costs, People with a permanent contract spend 20% more within two quarters of hiring. Those on temporary contracts, aware of the likelihood of becoming unemployed, are more accepting of job insecurity and consequently develop different spending patterns.

On the other hand, permanent contracts, even intermittent ones, even if they entail periods of inactivity during which no work is performed and therefore no payments are made, unless the worker is entitled to unemployment benefits, improve labor safety, that you can be sure that the company is obliged to call you again as soon as you resume business or when the low season ends.

Despite everything, institutions such as Fedya They are pushing for the government to begin regulating the use of intermittent permanent contracts so that the behavior of old temporary contracts is not repeated and legal fraud does not arise. Today, they warn, there is a risk of frequent and possibly suffering long involuntary periods of inactivity, and companies’ incentives are distorted by the shift to inaction at no cost to them. Thus, intermittent permanent contracts continue to be a major source of employment insecurity, with refusals high and frequent, and they therefore propose limiting their use by contractors and subcontractors, as well as introducing guaranteed minimum levels of rent or days of work. work that would mitigate the problems this entails.