In ten Spanish provinces, temporary contracts accounted for over 70% of signatures in June, with Palencia nearing 80%. Precarity persists despite the drop in unemployment.
The number of registered unemployed at SEPE offices fell by 28,739 people in June, a 1.24% decrease compared to the previous month, bringing the total to 2.3 million, a figure not seen since January 2008. However, the hiring data reveals a more complex reality: of the 1,694,394 contracts signed, 683,861 were permanent (40.46%), but the rest, over a million, have an expiration date.
In a dozen provinces, temporary employment exceeds 70% of total contracts. Palencia tops the list with almost 80% of temporary contracts, according to data from the Ministry of Labour. It is followed by Vizcaya, Guipúzcoa, Badajoz (73.42%), Pontevedra, and Zamora, among others.
The phenomenon is not directly linked to tourism. Although June marks the start of the high season, the provinces with the highest temporality are not the most touristic. In fact, the Balearic Islands present the opposite scenario: 73% of their contracts are permanent, the highest percentage in Spain, thanks to stable demand from foreign tourists.
At the other end, Murcia (57.31% of permanent contracts), Alicante (55.7%), Almería (55.1%), and Castellón (52.8%) record the best stability rates, although still far from the ideal.
The services sector accounts for 79% of temporary contracts, and industry for 12.6%. In the first six months of the year, temporary hiring has grown by 4.01% compared to the same period in 2025. All signs point to July surpassing one million temporary contracts signed in a single month, compared to 979,019 last year.
The Government highlights that unemployment is decreasing in all sectors and among both sexes (men -4.38%, women -4.97%), as well as among those under 25 years old (-3.13% monthly). Nevertheless, the temporary employment data shows that precariousness remains a structural problem in the Spanish labour market.
For readers interested in employment, these figures indicate that although there is more work, the quality of it varies by province. Those seeking stability would do well to look at communities like the Balearic Islands, Murcia, or the Valencian Community, where the rate of permanent contracts is higher. Conversely, in provinces like Palencia or the Basque Country, temporality is the norm.
SEPE's data for July will be published at the end of August, and it is expected to confirm the upward trend in seasonal temporary hiring.
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