By Andrea Hargraves 
The total number of fixed-term employees in public administrations increased again in 2021, the year the public sector entered a new, precarious frontier despite cutbacks in sectors such as health, where permanent employment increased. Higher education and research, in the opposite direction, strengthened the bonds in the long run.
At the end of December, there were a total of 90,910 fixed-term contracts in public administrations as a whole, an increase of 1,184 or 1.3% over the previous year, according to year-end statistics published by the Directorate General of Administration last week. and Public Employment (DGAEP).
The rise places the total number of risks in the public sector at the highest level in the entire statistical chain of public employment. This is happening for the third year in a row, since 2019, after the past two years, marked by a protracted process of regulating precarious relations in the civil service, have seen a decline in fixed-term contracts.
DGAEP data shows that nine out of ten fixed-term employees work in central management, with the health, education, higher education, and science and technology sectors focusing on the majority of fixed-term appointees. Actually, 70859.
However, for last year’s development, only higher education, science and technology contributed, which last December added up to 1,675 precarious jobs more than the previous year, an increase of 10.8%.
Among the government areas that increased the instability of labor contracts were defense, with an additional 199 fixed-term contracts or 1.9% more, and labor, solidarity and social security, which nearly doubled the number of workers with fixed-term contracts, from 37 to 151 (plus 114).
Health and education go down
In health, on the other hand, there were 237 fewer fixed-term recruits at the end of the year, down 1.1% compared to the same period in 2020. Also, in education, the decline was 1.5%, with 507 fewer. contracts for.
In the regional administrations, Madeira increased the pool of precarious employment contracts by 37.5%, with 297 additional workers, while the Azores regional administration reduced the risk by 1.9%, with 47 fewer workers with a fixed term.
At the local administration level, last year saw a 5.5% decrease in fixed-term contracts, with 258 fewer workers on these contracts.
Despite the annual increase in fixed-term hires in 2021, the weight of fixed-term employment in the public sector has not increased, reaching 12.4%, one-tenth less than in the previous year. This is due to the largest growth in indefinite contracts, which increased by 2.2% (11,987 additional recruits) for a total of 546,731 workers, or three quarters of the total number of employees.
At the same time, the number of appointments to service committees increased 4% to 22,476 employees, with the number of employees appointed increased 0.9% to 73,369 employees.
At the end of the year, there were 733,495 government employees, up 2% from the previous year or 14,665 more, and the increase in the central administration was 1.6% (8,904 more). In local administration, growth was 3.3%, with 4,025 additional jobs.
In the areas of the state that saw an increase in public hiring, were National Health Service hospitals, with more than 3,156 workers, and primary and secondary schools, with more than 2,337 employees. Also, there were 1,798 workers in educational and research units, and the year ended with 910 workers in the security forces.
By occupation type, in the past year, senior technicians were the most growing group in the civil service (2107 more), followed by operations assistants (1883 more), nurses (1242 more), doctors (898), members of the security forces (839) and university professors (777).