The Generalitat, Catalonia’s government, reduced temporary employment in its public workforce from 44% in 2022 to 8% in 2025, according to data obtained by Ara through a public-information access request. The lower rate meets the European Union target, but it has not guaranteed younger staff to replace an ageing workforce approaching retirement.

For residents who rely on services delivered by Generalitat departments, the figures matter because converting interim posts into permanent jobs does not itself increase staffing or ensure replacements when experienced employees leave. The IAC-CATAC trade union says recent recruitment processes have largely stabilised existing posts rather than expanded the workforce to meet public-service needs.

The 2025 figures are the latest cited by Ara from the request. The public employment database viewer, which tracks Catalan public-sector workforces, has been unavailable for several months while its methodology is reviewed and updated, according to the Generalitat.

Temporary employment falls to its lowest recorded level

Temporary employment stood at 29% in 2004, the first year for which the database has figures. It rose to 44% in 2022 before falling by 36 percentage points over the following three years.

  • 2004: 29% of the workforce was in temporary employment.
  • 2022: temporary employment reached 44%, its recorded high.
  • 2025: the rate fell to 8%, according to the data obtained by Ara.

Law 20/2021 set the reduction of temporary employment in public services as part of administrative reform. Ara reported that Catalonia’s 8% figure meets the European objective, while Spain still has to adapt to European requirements on temporary employment and the use of interim posts.

Younger age groups decline as older staff increase

Compared with 2023, the Generalitat added more than 5,000 workers in each of the 45–59 and 60–64 age groups. Across the under-30 and 30–44 groups, the workforce fell by nearly 300 people.

The decline reverses the growth recorded among younger groups since mid-2016. Ara reported that the Generalitat did not provide a breakdown by contract type, department or municipality during the review of the database viewer.

Assumpta Barbens, spokesperson for IAC-CATAC, said stabilisation has made existing temporary posts permanent without creating a corresponding increase in staffing.

“People think a public employment offer means new positions, but they are only temporarily occupied positions that become permanent.”Assumpta Barbens, IAC-CATAC spokesperson

Barbens said workers recruited during the early years of Catalan self-government still hold many senior posts and that many will retire within three or four years. She also said some younger people are being hired through temporary programmes or non-structural posts, which she said are not reflected in the official workforce figures.

IAC-CATAC plans to raise candidates’ complaints about recent examinations for the Generalitat’s senior civil-service body with the Catalan School of Public Administration. The union says candidates consider the tests too focused on memorisation rather than the skills used in day-to-day administration.

Reported by ara.cat, Ara Cat.