Labor does not count as unemployed those contracted as discontinuous permanent employees who stop working. The hiring formula that grew the most in April is one of the keys to the takeoff of permanent contracts and the new labor paradigm
Like energy, temporality in the Spanish labor market is transformed but not destroyed. The entry into force of the labor reform has uncovered discontinuous fixed contracts as the great tool against temporaryd, not only in labor terms but also in statistics.
Discontinuous fixed contracts They are not an invention of Minister Yolanda Daz. They are prior to the labor reform launched last December. The new framework establishes permanent contracts as a rule and temporary contracts as an exception. But it maintains the discontinuous fixed model within the category of indefinite in order to absorb a good part of those nine out of ten new contracts that before the reform there was a finalization plazo established.
And businessmen have opted for this formula now that the annual hiring for the tourist season begins. The difference with 2021 and previous years can already be seen in thel Spectacular growth of indefinite contracts, for example with extreme temporality, that of contracts of just days. But it will be felt more strongly in the autumn with a predictably smoother increase in unemployment thanks to the new hiring formula.
Until last year, the usual thing in the Spanish labor market was that with the arrival of the low season unemployment grew because the contracts signed in the spring ended. In 2022 hundreds of thousands of contracts will not end, they will be discontinued. The worker will stop going to the company but will not appear as unemployed in the statistics of the Ministry of Labor. “Appear as an unemployed jobseeker”, they explain in Work. “It would be similar to the administrative situation that people in ERTE experienced, they did not work but they were not unemployed,” they continue.
The ERTE came to protect more than three million people in May 2020 who never counted as unemployed even if they did not work and received benefits. In 2022, in April, the number of discontinuous fixed contracts amounted to 283,000 and it is already ten times greater than in the first four months of 2021. When these contracts are interrupted until the next call from the employer, they will become “denos”, not unemployed. In April, the number of denos was 219,000.
In Trabajo they reject the term make-up to describe this statistical reading of the activity in the labor market and emphasize that it is prior to the arrival of Díaz at Trabajo. What has changed is that now all contracts must be indefinite, except in highly valued cases. And that makes permanent discontinuous workers the preferred permanent employment option for many of the workers who were previously temporary.
The advantage for workers hired under the new formula is that they earn rights such as seniority or severance pay, which is not insignificant. But even so, Labor inspectors observe this formula as one of the clearer potential niches of precariousness, according to the president of the Inspectors union, Ana Ercoreca.
Be that as it may, the Spanish labor market completed its first month last April with the labor reform approved in December fully in force. And the effects of the new legal framework, which establishes permanent contracts as a rule and temporary contracts as an exception, manifested themselves with an unprecedented takeoff of the first.
One of every two contracts signed in April was permanent, when the usual in the last decade was a proportion of nine temporary contracts for one permanent. The paradigm has changed and nothing happens, Daz said., triumphant, in an informative act that coincides with the monthly presentation of unemployment data. The entry into force of the reform added to the start of hiring for the tourist campaign yield some spectacular figures that reinforce Díaz. The answer that her interlocutors most expected yesterday was if she would present herself as the leading candidate of a new political platform. I’ll decide at the end of the year, he replied.
Until then, the job market is likely to continue to blow in your favor. If it is not in terms of lowering unemployment, it will be in terms of reduced temporary employment. At that point he has the game won because he plays with all the trumps.
Registered unemployment in employment offices I fell back last April by 86,260 people which represent 2.7% less than in March. The number of people who are officially looking for a job drops to almost three million (3.02 million) at the beginning of a quarter that is one of the most active in terms of job creation in the Spanish labor market. The figure is at 2008 levels.
The trend will continue until the disappearance of the work and service contract, widely used in sectors such as construction. His relief will be the one that remains under the discontinuous fixed formula. They are indefinite, stable and give the same rights, the same as the rest: seniority, compensation for dismissal… It is a rule that changes our paradigm and much remains to be done, Daz warned in the presence of a large group of businessmen and members of the Government.
In this sense, the labor reform that has changed the structure of the market in terms of hiring makes it advisable to observe what type of contracts are signed. From a statistical point of view when measuring the quality of employment, you can call deception like a trompe l’oeil. The fact that the indefinite contract has been established as the norm as opposed to temporary does not mean that all new jobs are permanent and full time. In fact, most will be part-time or intermittent. As a whole and on average they will last less than before the labor reform.
The Spanish labor market has a strong seasonal component that has not disappeared, as reflected by the fact that the main impetus for permanent contracts comes from part-time contracts and many of those signed last month will be discontinued next September. without breaking. People with these contracts who stop working until the next call from the employer, perhaps six months later, continue to be hired indefinitely in the eyes of the Administration. But, as the Minister of Labor has assured today, they are stable contracts.
Last April they signed 284,732 permanent full-time contracts and 413,914 part-time. The former increased by 177% and the latter multiplied by six, 573%. If the period from January to April is taken, those who are full-time grew by 116% while those who work part-time grew by 296%. Temporality is thus transferred to new contracts that have more recognized rights but are far from being equal to permanent full-time work.
Greater still is the dynamic around discontinuous fixed contracts that are also indefinite and that can also be full or part time. In the past month they were the modality that was most used within the indefinite contract with 238,000 contracts and also the one that grew the most, as its use doubled. In annual terms, multiply by 10.
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