Two in the afternoon on Holy Saturday in Villanueva de los Infantes (Ciudad Real), a place in La Mancha where the bones of Francisco de Quevedo rest. The Plaza Mayor is full. In a bar, María works tirelessly. Her first shift of the day started in the morning. At four in the afternoon, she will change uniforms to work as a fishmonger. At night, she will serve drinks in a nightclub.
María is a single person, but she accumulates several jobs and, therefore, several affiliations. Her case reflects a growing trend: in Spain, the number of contracts and affiliations is beginning to exceed that of real workers.
🔴 Pedro Sánchez celebrates 22 million affiliates in Social Security with the national team's jersey.
— demócrata (@democrata_info) April 6, 2026
📲 All the information in Demócrata: https://t.co/QnZece5Ws3 pic.twitter.com/nTz9zIG8K0
Affiliations versus people: the statistical key
This Monday, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, celebrated that Spain has surpassed the 22 million affiliations to Social Security. However, as the Vice President and Minister of Economy, Carlos Cuerpo, has explained on different occasions, this figure measures total registrations, not unique individuals.
That is to say, the same person can appear several times in the statistics if they have more than one job, as is the case with María.
According to Social Security data, average affiliation reached 21,882,147 workers in February, after growing by 211,000 people in the month and 524,000 in year-on-year terms (a 2.46%).
But, as warns Demócrata José Luis Fernández Santiallana, from the Workers' Trade Union (USO), to achieve that increase, 15,759,864 contracts have been necessary, which is equivalent to an average of 30 contracts per affiliate per year.
The calendar effect and the weight of tourism
Employment growth is conditioned by seasonal factors. The employers' association CEOE highlights that March closed with an increase of 211,510 affiliates and a drop in unemployment of 22,934 people, largely driven by Holy Week.
The advance was especially intense in sectors linked to seasonal tourism, such as hospitality, which added more than 79,500 affiliates, in many cases coming from lists of inactive permanent-seasonal workers.
Less stability: part-time and intermittent permanent workers grow
The Madrid employers' association CEIM chaired by Miguel Garrido warns that the challenge is to improve job stability. In March, 56.3% of permanent contracts were part-time or intermittent permanent, with increases of 15% and 23%, respectively.
Additionally, CEIM warns of the economic impact on companies:
- The intergenerational equity mechanism has collected 22% more
- The solidarity contribution has doubled
- And have grown by more than 15% the companies that request deferrals of contributions
The organization also criticizes the lack of measures such as the deflation of the Personal Income Tax or energy decisions in a context of uncertainty.
For its part, the employers' association of small and medium-sized enterprises Cepyme places the focus on the structural weakness of SMEs, especially micro-enterprises.
According to its data, employment in these grows less than half than in the business as a whole, in an environment marked by the increase in energy, financial, and raw material costs.
In data
Final data for March 2026
-
Permanent contracts: >500,000
-
Full-time: 43.7%
-
Permanent-intermittent: 30.8%
-
Part-time: 25.5%
-
-
Temporary contracts: 734,538 (56% of total, +11.64% year-on-year)
-
People with multiple permanent contracts: 32,402
-
Reduction in unemployment: 22,934 people
"The data shows a labor market where having a permanent contract -points out the Workers' Union- no longer guarantees stability, and multiple employment and rotation are increasingly frequent".
The match contracts
The economic deputy secretary of the Popular Party, Juan Bravo, also distinguishes between affiliations and real people. As he points out, the fact that 22 million unique workers are not reached evidences that many people need several jobs to support themselves, which reflects greater precariousness.
Bravo adds other structural factors: high unemployment rates, especially youth; low productivity and, increase in absenteeism, with a cost that has gone from 14,000 million in 2018 to 30,000 million in 2025
Spain maintains one of the highest levels of temporality in Europe (17–20%), almost double the EU average. In addition, many contracts last less than six months, according to the ILO.
The latest study by the Workers' Trade Union highlights that, despite the signing of more than half a million permanent contracts in March, unemployment only fell by 22,934 people.
Only 19.2% of the total contracts were permanent full-time, while part-time and intermittent permanent contracts grew. Temporary contracts represented 56% of the total. Thus -summarizes USO-, "the result is a labor market with more contracts than workers, higher turnover and an extension of the so-called “match contracts”, of very short duration".