The labor reform has been with us for four years now, in a labor market that combines maximum membership numbers with increasingly complex unemployment statistics. According to data from the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), in September there were 740,000 inactive discontinuous permanent workers, that is, those who do not work, but do not appear on the official unemployment lists, while between January and September 570,164 benefits associated with this modality were processed (245,754 initial registrations and 324,410 resumptions), double the number before the regulatory change. The phenomenon reopens the debate on “hidden unemployment” and its effects on aid spending.
Discontinuous permanent contracts, promoted by the reform as an alternative to temporary contracts, allow maintaining the link with the company during periods of inactivity. Therefore, they are not counted as registered unemployed, although they can collect benefits when they are not active. This statistical “hybrid” partly explains the 114% increase in files compared to 2019 and that, without mechanically increasing registered unemployment, it does increase the flow of registrations and cancellations in the protection system.
You may be interested
Óscar Puente says that his “people are quite austere” after showing the diets and the Unified Police Union responds: “It may be time to review who lives beyond their means.”
Electrical network on the verge of its capacity: the Government raises investment limits by 62% and the sector demands a minimum regulated return of 7%
In this sense, the Union Sindical Obrera (USO) places the “real unemployment” above 3.7 million people, by adding to the 2,443,766 unemployed registered by the SEPE other groups, which are workers with limited availability (362,408), other employed people (191,075), people in ERTE (13,126 in October) and the permanently inactive discontinuous workers (more than 740,000). “One in four unemployed people in the euro zone is Spanish,” explains the head of the USO Studies Office, José Luis Fernández Santillana. The Objectivewhich attributes the phenomenon to the persistence of seasonality and indefinite seasonal contracts.
Youth unemployment increased by 10,082 people under 25 years of age, 45% of the monthly increase, while by sector it fell in construction and rose in industry, agriculture and, above all, services. Male unemployment reached 963,301 people and female unemployment reached 1,480,465; In year-on-year terms, both decline, but the adjustment does not correct the gap.
Spending on unemployment benefits increases
In parallel, the CEOE warns of a drop in productivity per employee compared to the end of 2019 and of an effective average working day on the decline in the private sector (30.9 hours per week in the first three quarters, according to the EPA). The employers link it to the increase in temporary disabilities and a regulation of permits that, in their opinion, generates legal uncertainty.
Spending on benefits and subsidies is growing strongly. AIReF and the Bank of Spain estimate a year-on-year increase of 30%-35% in all aid, driven by discontinuous fixed assets and the evolution of contributions. In 2019, this group represented 7.7% of those who received a benefit; In 2025 it will be around 11%. On average, 88,000 people received discontinuous permanent benefits in September and 129,650 throughout 2025, figures that hide a high turnover of files and very short collection periods.
The profile of the discontinuous fixed term has also changed, as it is no longer limited to agricultural campaigns or tourist seasons, but extends to logistics, education or customer service, with shorter stretches of activity that exhaust contributory rights sooner. The Ministry of Labor does not publish the exact number of registered inactive people, as it is a regional competence, although the Yearbook of Labor Statistics offers estimates with a time lag.
This problem is amplified by other cracks in the labor market, since 847,150 people declare pluriactivity (two or more jobs to make ends meet), absenteeism exceeds one million people who do not go to work each day on an annual average, and Spain is ranked as the second EU country in child poverty, with four million in severe material deprivation, according to the same sources. ATA and Cepyme also warn of unequal growth that favors large and medium-sized companies, while the self-employed and micro-businesses destroy jobs.