Young men biggest winners from labour law

22 November 2006

MADRID — Young men are the most likely to get permanent jobs, according to a survey published on Wednesday.

Research found a new law to give more workers permanent and not temporary jobs was most likely to favour men.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s socialist government had brought in the new law to try to reduce the number of people, the majority women, who were stuck in temporary jobs.

The large number of temporary workers had been blamed for forcing women to delay childbirth as they could not be sure they could afford to support a child. This partly explained the country’s low birth rate.

It also stopped couple’s buying homes with job uncertainty hanging over them.

The Temporary Work Association survey found 57 percent of those who had converted to permanent jobs after the new law came in in July were men aged 25 to 29.

Almost two thirds had been given indefinite contracts while 23 percent won permanent contracts in non-professional jobs.

Catalonia had the largest number of workers who had changed from temporary to permanent jobs at 20pc, followed by Madrid, 17pc.

The survey said 868,883 workers had got permanent jobs.

The report’s authors said it was not clear if people had changed to permanent jobs because of the new law or if this was a natural job market change.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news