The latest labor reform has reworked the role of discontinuous fixed-term contracts, which have gone from an ephemeral use in certain sectors to a part of the “daily life” of a large number of workers. This contractual method is used for those jobs performed stably, but having an intermittent level of activity with periods of inactivity. This is the case for tourism or agriculture, to cite just two examples. Thus, permanent employment does not guarantee continuous work. This volatility is particularly absorbed by those under 30.which represent 45% of interrupted permanent contracts signed during the year 2024, according to a report from Wolters Kluwer Insights.
The company specialized in software, information and service solutions for companies and professionals analyzes the evolution of this type of contracts, especially after the impulse derived from the labor reform: more than 1.2 million of signatures are until now discontinuous indefinite-term contracts. Before the reform, The number of contracts in this modality represented 3% and is now around 14%.
If 45% corresponds to young people under 30, the increase in companies under 20 also stands out, going from 1% to 9% in two years. From this age, its use gradually decreases until it represents 9% of the total from the age of 45 and is practically residual among seniors.
Have a discontinuous permanent position, although permanent in labor regulations, does not fully guarantee stability and this particularly affects young people. In fact, most contracts do not resume activity in the same position once the period of unemployment is over. Only 34% of permanent employees laid off receive the call after inactivity and keep their position.
A seasonal contract
The discontinuous landlines have a marked seasonality, each year with similar patterns. The months of April, May and June are those which concentrate the greatest number of new discontinuous CDI registrations (36%), followed by March and July (18%). At the other extreme are the months of January, February, August and November, with 6% of new contracts of this modality, and December, with 4%.
THE hospitality This is the sector with the greatest number of discontinuous permanent contracts, since they represent practically half of the discontinuous permanent contracts (43%) and represent 28.4% of the recruitment modality in this sector. Next come administrative activities and auxiliary services (11%); agriculture, livestock and fishing (9%); commerce (8%); educational, artistic and entertainment activities (6%); professional, scientific and technical activities (4%); health and social services activities, transport and warehousing, manufacturing industry (3%); construction (2%) and information and communications (1%).
Three autonomous communities represent more than half (53.9%) of this type of contract: Balearic Islands, with 21.1%; Andalusia, with 17.3%, and Catalonia, with 15.5%. Next come the Valencian Community (10.2%) and Madrid (9.4%), while the others show less significant figures.
There are no differences by gender and they are almost 50% distributed between men and women. Regarding the country of origin of workers with intermittent permanent contracts, employees outside Spain represent 28.2% of this modality. Of the total new contracts for foreigners in 2024, 20% were discontinuous permanent contracts, mainly from Europe (38%), Africa (30%), South America (19%) and North America (7%).
