The approval of the labor reform at the beginning of the year marked a turning point, not only because it was the result of an agreement between employers and unions, but also because of the prospects for labor market improvement. . Well, after the first semester, it can be said that it fulfilled the hopes generated in the province of Alicante, one of the most precarious regions. Uncertain contracts quadrupled. The 134,816 permanent jobs created during this period additionally represented 43% of total hiring, compared to only 13% last year. In this content, One of the groups that benefit most from the new regulations is young people under the age of 25.with at least a 631% increase in permanent employment.
The province of Alicante registered a total of 310,787 contracts in the first half of the current year. 134,816 were indefinite and 175,971 provisional. An unprecedented leap of qualifications, given that so far temporary employment has been the main protagonist of the labor market. This is evident when compared with data for the same period in 2021, when 253,973 contracts were formalized, of which only 32,055 were uncertain contracts and 221,918 provisional contracts. There is also a situation where sustained employment is skyrocketing, particularly in the second quarter, where labor reform has already been applied to all impacts.
Increase in perpetual contracts spread across all sectors. Thus, in the first half of 2021, from 2,296 to 9,871 in the current year, from 5,032 to 16,149 in industry, from 1,458 to 12,624 in construction and from 22,269 in services, the dominant sector in the province. up to 91,033.
Another notable fact is that young people under the age of 25, one of the most affected by insecurity, are among the beneficiaries of the reform the most. From the outset, hiring has increased by 32% overall, but above all, the data for permanent hires jumped from 3,469 to 25,376. The hotel sector is the sector that attracts the most from this segment.
With these results, the assessment of how it could have been otherwise by social actors is positive. Yaissel Sánchez, secretary general of the UGT at l’Alacantí-Les Marines, does not hesitate to state that the expectations have been met, to the point where he emphasizes, “labor market reversedIt was an abuse, especially in a city like ours, where we had a temporary 90% rate until today”.
But the worry lies in what could happen in the coming months. “Tourism has always been – as he put it – very ephemeral, so let’s see what happens after summer. In any case, the figure of the fixed-permanent contract can play a crucial role here, ensuring that workers are recruited in future campaigns such as Christmas or Easter.
Similarly, Raúl Alcocel, secretary of the CC OO on the border of the Central Valencia Regions, stressed that thanks to the labor reform, “there is now more control over hiring in companies and vetoed the fraud that prevailed before”. The union representative also stated that the results obtained were “in line with neoliberal theories”. Claimed that stable employment is incompatible with economic growth“.
Salvador Navarro, president of the Valencian Community Business Confederation, reminds that the reform was challenged by the European Union due to high youth employment and temporary employment, and although there are some sectors, the reform was challenged by the European Union. problems, “Common sense has shown us that can be done without market misalignment“.