As we already discussed in a previous Focus, employment stability in Spain has improved in recent years, as reflected in the sharp decline in the temporary employment rate and in the reduced flow of entries and departures in the labour market. Although turnover has increased in all types of contracts, the aggregate turnover rate (the sum of Social Security registrations and de-registrations as a percentage of the total number of workers registered under the General Scheme) has reduced due to a composition effect, given that permanent contracts, which tend to have a lower turnover, have increased as a share of the total. In this article we take a more detailed look at one of the determining factors of turnover, namely, departures from the labour market, and we analyse the changes they have undergone, having been significantly affected by the entry into force of the latest labour reform approved in December 2021.
There are several factors that influence outflows of workers from employment. Among others, they include: (i) the digital transformation, which is causing changes in the demand for certain professions and skills; (ii) temporary employment and the outsourcing of services, which contribute to the instability of employment; (iii) crises, recessions or unexpected events such as the pandemic, which lead to job destruction, and (iv) population ageing, given that the empirical evidence shows that labour mobility decreases as workers’ age increases.
In view of the data provided by the Social Security Treasury, the main cause of affiliate de-registrations (see first chart) remains the termination of temporary contracts. That said, this type of termination of employment has reduced considerably, in line with the fewer number of temporary contracts being signed as a result of the labour reform. In this regard, whereas in 2014-2019 two in every three departures (almost 686,000 per year on average) occurred for this reason, in 2025 (using annualised data to April) that figure has fallen by over 30% to below 477,000, representing 42.5% of the total.