The opponent’s path is long, lonely, hard and unpaid, but for half of the Spanish active population it is preferable to continuing to work in the private sector. And it is that upon reaching the goal, the reward offered by the public sector, a better quality of life and job stability, weighs more in the balance than a high salary. If we add this to the current inflationary context and economic uncertainty, we have as a result that one in two Spaniards between the ages of 18 and 55 – around 12 million people – has applied or is thinking of doing so soon, according to a recently published report from the OpositaTest portal. From them, 65% do it for job stability and 74% consider that being a civil servant allows them to have a better quality of life than that offered by most jobs.
This avalanche of opponents seeking a stable future puts the working conditions of the private sector in the spotlight. According to Jacobo Fariña, head of communication at OpositaTest, although half of the opponents and those who consider opposing have a job, they continue to seek stability, “a clear sign that their contract does not offer them security and certainty.”
The economic criterion also matters, but less, since some are aware that with the change they will charge less. According to the report, 55% of the opponents will increase their income if they get the position, but 12% indicate that with a public job they will earn less and the rest will remain at the same level. “Just as before they accepted jobs where salary was the decisive factor, now conciliation, flexibility, a suitable environment and the peace of mind of knowing that they have a guaranteed future play a role,” says Jonathan García, CEO of OpositaTest.
The profile of the average Spanish opponent is a woman between the ages of 36 and 50, which makes it clear that the path of public employment in most cases is not plan A. While a limited percentage of the opponents leave the race directly and prepare for the exam, a good part has a job in the private sector that does not allow them to reconcile and whose salary is not so large once expenses are discounted. «It is criticized that people want to oppose instead of starting or working in companies. In the end, they are people who have a lot of paths to choose from and the public chooses because it offers them the best conditions on a personal and economic level. You have to focus on what the private sector should improve, ”warns García.
Pilar, 55-year-old warden, is the most representative example of why half of Spaniards prefer public to private employment. At the age of 16, she began working as an administrative assistant and after six years in the same company, three of them with a contract under the responsibility of her father and another three under the responsibility of her son, they decided to fire her because she was a woman. “One day my father told me that They couldn’t renew my contract anymore because I was a woman and I might get pregnant at some point. It was the year 1990. I didn’t expect it, I had a terrible time. I started working at another company and more of the same happened. When the contract ended, they did not renew me, you did not have any type of right, “he says.
After seeing what the private sector had in store for him, he obtained his baccalaureate at a distance and at the age of 25 he began to oppose the local administration, but after several exams, failing in the last phase of the test and seeing how the positions were held by relatives or friends of local politicians, he decided to go to the regional oppositions to work as service personnel. «I always passed but I was left in the bag, I could not get a place. In 2003 they called me for a position as a warden and since then I have always worked, except for a few months at the beginning,” he explains. During all those years, Pilar started a family, bought a house, took two middle grades and continued to prepare for the opposition until in 2019, 25 years after her first opposition, she got her position as warden.
Security and the ability to reconcile family and professional life were the main drivers to keep trying. «I saw that being an official, all my rights were fulfilled and I continued to oppose. I am very well and I recommend it to my children. I don’t want to be rich, I want to lead a normal life without fearing that tomorrow they will throw me out on the street. Although now things have changed and in a company they would not dare to tell you to your face that they fire you for being a woman and because you can have children, there are still many rights violations », she explains.
Share the same opinion Sergio, a 26-year-old historian and geographer who will present himself this summer for the opposition for secondary school teacher in his autonomous community. In his sector, finding job opportunities outside of teaching is complicated and the experiences he has had working part-time in private companies helped him confirm that public employment was the best option. «The problem is not that people do not want to start or work for the private sector, the problem is that companies do not pay their workers well, make them work free overtime, do not respect vacations and many other things. As economic uncertainty increases, more people will want to have a permanent job where their labor rights are respected», value. As the son of civil servants, at home he saw how another work reality was possible and after a double degree, two master’s degrees and a doctorate in progress, he decided to take the exam, although it was not his original plan.
For Sara, a 26-year-old psychologist, opposing was not the first option either. “At the beginning of the degree, I said that I would absolutely not take oppositions, because in psychology they are complex, it is not a closed agenda and the places are very small, just 230,” he explains. «My last option was to take the opposition, but when I finished my degree and saw that the other alternative was to do a two-year master’s degree that did not guarantee me to get a job, I decided to go to the opposition», Add. Sara is clear about the reasons: «What the future holds for me in the private sector is a total lack of stability, while with the opposition you have that advantage and also more training, since for four years you rotate through different departments and that it gives a lot of experience in many areas of psychology rather than just one.” For this reason, she is already going for her second attempt at the opposition and believes that the sacrifice is worth it in exchange for getting a secure job.
The regions with the most and least opponents
Regarding the weight of opponents in each autonomous community, the Canary Islands (44%) and Aragón (42%) are above the national average, where four out of 10 people between the ages of 18 and 55 are opposed or have opposed, followed by Castilla-La Mancha (37%), Castilla y León (33%), Andalusia (32%) and Galicia (31%). In the rest, the number of opponents is below the average, and Catalonia is the one with the least (17%), followed by Madrid (23%). For its part, the number of people intending to oppose has grown from 2.9 million in 2022 to more than 5 million in 2023, with the regions with the greatest rise being Madrid, the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Castilla y León, Murcia and Galicia.