Economic recovery and a longer tourism season are resulting in an increase in the number of "fijo discontinuo" employment contracts, which are typically associated with the tourism sector. In each month last year except for October, there were more of these contracts than in the corresponding month of 2015, a year during which there were increases for each month with the exception of November.
The regional employment ministry describes these increases as a natural effect of the labour market. The ministry also takes credit for the impact of its plan against job insecurity, saying that employees who were on temporary contracts now have fijo discontinuo.
Last summer, employment inspectors examined over 9,000 temporary contracts, a third of which did not comply with the law. These were changed to indefinite contracts and also included the discontinuo variety.
The months with the highest number of discontinuo contracts were May to September. In each month there were over 70,000. But for the main unions - CCOO and UGT - these are not adequate. A record tourism season should have had a more positive impact on the labour market.
Nevertheless, the upward trend is positive and not just in terms of the number of contracts. Mainly because of a longer season, employees who are on discontinuo are being called back to work earlier.