A report from the Argentine Social Debt Observatory (ODSA-UCA) reveals that 45% of workers in Spain occupy precarious positions, an increase from 42.6% in 2010. Informality and low incomes mark a distorted labour market.
Labour precariousness in Spain has reached historic levels. According to the report "Deterioration and Crumbling of the Social Work Structure in Argentina (2010-2015)" from the Argentine Social Debt Observatory (ODSA-UCA), 45% of workers were in 2025 in a position considered precarious, compared to 42.6% in 2010. The study, which analyses the evolution of the Spanish labour market over the last fifteen years, indicates that the quality of employment has worsened despite the unemployment rate not experiencing dramatic jumps.
Economic growth does not generate quality employment
Researchers Ramiro Robles, Alejo Giannecchini and Valentina Ledda warn that the problem is not only low economic growth but also the difficulty in transforming that growth into productive and protected employment. Over the last decade and a half, the Spanish economy has coexisted with low growth, recurring macroeconomic crises, and loss of productivity, factors that have limited the creation of formal employment.
The greatest labour participation has concentrated in low-productivity activities, especially in the micro-informal sector and self-employment. While in the last decade the expansion relied on industry, commerce, and transport, from 2023-2025 the leadership of growth shifted towards primary activities, finance, and mining, sectors with less impact on the creation of direct employment.
The report highlights that the employment generated in provinces like Río Negro and Neuquén, driven by mining and energy, does not compensate for the loss of quality jobs at the national level. As Alejo Giannecchini states, "in the short term, reconversion is difficult; there is a spillover in some provinces, but it does not improve the decline in formal employment."
Informality grows and public employment decreases
The expansion of employment has not been homogeneous or equalising. Situations of informality, instability, and lack of protection are more frequent in the micro-informal sector, although the deterioration also reaches traditionally more structured segments of the labour market. In 2025, 48.3% of the employed work in the micro-informal sector, an increase from 45.9% in 2023. Meanwhile, public employment reduced its share from 20.1% to 16.7%, while the formal private sector remained almost stable, moving from 34% to 35% of total employment.
Within the micro-informal sector, independent workers dominate: self-employed and non-salaried individuals constitute 31.7% of urban employment. For UCA, this growth largely reflects survival strategies rather than entrepreneurial processes with productive potential.
The incidence of precariousness is particularly high in the micro-informal sector, with 66.5% of precarious positions, and among informal salaried workers, with 81.1%. Even in formal private employment, the proportion of precarious positions grew to 29.1%.
Informal self-employment as a refuge in the face of lack of opportunities
Occupational mobility also shows deterioration. Among the unemployed, the probability of moving to informal self-employment increased from 24.1% to 29.5% in the analysed periods. Conversely, the chances of moving from unemployment to a formal salaried position or public employment decreased. Additionally, there was an increase in the transition from protected jobs to informal self-employment, from 4.8% to 6.2%.
UCA interprets these trajectories as the consolidation of independent work as a "refuge employment" in the face of lack of opportunities in higher productivity sectors. The lowest incomes are concentrated among precarious workers in the micro-informal sector, exacerbating inequality.
The report concludes that labour precariousness is a symptom of a distorted market, where unemployment is no longer a sufficient indicator to measure the health of employment. The quality of work is deteriorating, and a process of greater informality and lower incomes is consolidating. For Spanish workers, the reality is that having a job no longer guarantees decent conditions or stability.
You may also like
