The government approved, during its cabinet meeting on Tuesday, the public employment offer (OPE) for 2024, totaling 40,146 positions. The breakdown of vacancies that will likely appear in the Official State Gazette (BOE) on Wednesday includes roughly half of the posts open to the public, meaning new roles available to anyone, regardless of current public administration status.
The Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Function has negotiated with unions to produce an OPE that, according to its calculations, will yield a positive net gain of about 9,000 additional staff in the administration. This figure accounts for new hires minus retirements. The following are the main agencies where new vacancies will be announced in the coming months.
Which administrations will see opposition exams?
The government’s OPE covers vacancies in the General State Administration (AGE), the National Police, the Civil Guard, and the Armed Forces. In autonomous communities, health and education services and other sectors manage their own public employment offers, so each territory publishes its own slate of vacancies.
Specifically, the cabinet-approved offer for the AGE totals 31,465 positions, distributed through services such as the SEPE, the General Treasury of the Social Security, and various departmental ministries, among others. Without providing further detail, the ministry stated that 8,440 of these are for free access, intended for new applicants and those not currently employed in the administration.
More precisely, 1,098 net-new positions will be allocated to the Social Security system, Base Logística Defensa, AESIA, CNMC, the Prado Museum, and Ports of the State. A further 2,520 free-market vacancies will be opened for the Administration of Justice through open competition.
In addition to those AGE postings, 8,681 vacancies are designated for police, civil guard, and the armed forces. Specifically, 2,857 will go to the National Police, 3,158 to the Civil Guard, and 2,666 to the Armed Forces.
What types of posts are up for competition?
All public employment offers contain three categories of vacancies. First, free-access posts open to anyone who holds Spanish nationality and meets the age requirement. Second, internal promotion posts are aimed at current officials within the administration who can advance professionally.
In this year’s AGE OPE, a total of 31,465 vacancies have been announced, with 20,840 designated for free access and 10,625 reserved for internal promotion.
Furthermore, the government has introduced a new 10% reserve for applicants with disabilities. Specifically, 3,147 posts are set aside for people with disabilities, with 629 of those reserved for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
When will the exams take place?
The public employment offer line-by-line breaks down the positions but does not include the schedule or details on when the administration will convocations the various processes so interested individuals can register and mark exam dates. The government intends to publish these details in the coming months and, in some cases, throughout the next year.
Historically, it has not been unusual for vacancies published in one year to be examined in the following year or even two years later. Indeed, the 2024 OPE includes vacancies from the 2023 and 2022 exercises that are yet to be convocated.