Nearly a quarter, or 24.9%, of public workers in Spain are temporary workers, the highest rate since 2009 according to a study from Randstad Spain.

There are currently 3.11 million workers who work in the public sector, and 777,100 of them do so through a temporary contract.

Among the 13.13 million employees in the private sector, 27.2% of them work with a fixed-term contract (3.57 million).

Randstad found that between 2008 and 2009, the percentage of public sector workers with fixed-term contracts stood between 25% and 27%, registering the highest values. Since then, this rate gradually decreased until reaching its lowest level in the first quarter of 2013, when it stood at 19%. At the same time, the lowest number of temporary workers in the public sector was also recorded, with a figure below 560,000. Since then, the total number and percentage has been on an upward trend.

Luis Pérez, director of Institutional Relations of Randstad said the growing number of temporary workers in the public sector is beginning to echo the same trends in the private sector and added that this would “lead to greater productivity and profitability.”