Public employment breaks record in 2023 and gains ground over the private sector driven by the growth of the State workforce

Last year, the Spanish labor market demonstrated its strength not only in private companies, but also in a public sector especially driven by the growth of personnel at the service of the State.. Whether at the state, regional or local level, one in every seven employees in Spain works for public administrations, whose volume of employees reached a new maximum in the historical series in 2023, exceeding 2.98 million members.

The public sector gained ground over the private sector in creating jobs last year. According to Social Security affiliation data, one in every five jobs generated between December 2022 and the same month in 2023 originated under the protection of public administrations, a proportion higher than that recorded a year earlier, when one in seven Jobs created were public. During the year that just ended, the administrations gained a total of 100,939 employees, which represents an annual increase of 3.5% in the number of workers. For its part, employment in private companies grew by 2.5% to exceed 17.85 million employees.

Specifically, in the last year the dynamism of job creation in the State stands out, which has gained 32,282 new workers. These incorporations have translated into an increase of 8% in the state workforce, an increase that triples in relative terms the increase in the volume of employees recorded in the private company.. The regional administrations also added a total of 68,662, according to Social Security affiliation data for December.

However, the weight of the increase in personnel is less marked at the regional level – it represents an increase of 3.9% – since the communities bring together a greater volume of employed people. In fact, almost two out of every three public employees work in the regional administrations, whose workforce is especially swelled by teachers and health personnel – these groups represent respectively 32.2% and 42.1% of the regional staff.. For their part, local administrations (city councils, provincial councils, town councils and island councils) employ one in four public workers, specifically a total of 733,400 people, a figure that has barely changed in the last year.

The concentration of teaching and especially health personnel in the autonomous administration means that women predominate among employees at this territorial level, since both sectors are the two with the greatest female presence – women respectively occupy 66.3% and 76.9% of the positions. In fact, two out of every three workers serving communities are women, while in the system as a whole they represent slightly less than half of the total number of employees (47.3%).. On the other hand, in the State workforce, the predominance of men in the Security Forces and Corps reduces the proportion of women. According to the latest data from the Central Personnel Registry, they represent only 18.1% of the personnel in the National Police, 13% in the Armed Forces and 9.5% in the Civil Guard.

Not just officials

Not all public employees are civil servants. There are also labor personnel, that is, people who work for the administration after having signed a contract.. Although with differences, at both the state and regional levels career civil servants predominate, representing respectively 78.8% and 47% of employees, according to the Statistical Bulletin of personnel at the service of public administrations, published this week by the Ministry of Digital Transformation and Public Service. In the communities, the proportion is reduced especially due to the preponderance of labor personnel in public universities – 58.5% of workers are hired in this way.

The bulletin updated this week, which compiles data until July from the Central Personnel Registry, also incorporates, as a novelty compared to previous editions, personnel in training or internships “with the aim of providing a more complete global image” of public employment, according to what they defend the authors in the document itself. This novelty reflects the existence of 4,831 workers in training in the ministries, most of them people who have passed and obtained a place in an opposition but must take a course before joining.

Alleviate the structural deficit

UGT echoed this week the data collected in the bulletin published by Public Function and evaluated them positively, attributing the increase in personnel in the service of the State to the voluminous public employment offers approved by the Government and negotiated by the unions to alleviate the structural personnel deficit. “The impact of these pacts has managed to reverse the progressive destruction of public employment in the General State Administration between 2010 and 2016, which caused a deficit of human resources in many services and the overall aging of the workforce,” the union assesses.

However, the state administration still has the challenge of continuing to renew its workforce.. According to the Central Personnel Registry, 20.3% of ministry employees are 60 years old or older, which means they will retire in just over five years. UGT also asks for “speed” both in announcing positions and in making the appointments of new public employees, although they foresee a greater reduction in the personnel deficit as the pending selective processes are resolved in the coming months.