Publications

The parliamentary process should amend the proposal so that the reduction of the workday happens gradually, with increases in productivity and through collective bargaining, minimizing distortions and avoiding additional inefficiencies in the labor market.

GDP growth in 2024 has been revised upward by 0.2 percentage points, reaching 3.1%, driven by stronger-than-expected performance in the third quarter and a slight acceleration in job creation in the fourth. Growth is projected at 2.3% in 2025 and could settle at 1.7% in 2026.

Signs indicate a gradual slowdown/normalization of the labor market, with NIFB survey trends suggesting no acceleration in employment, alongside lower Job openings and quits indicating slower wage growth.

The objectives of this study aim to gauge the impact of the reduction in the legal maximum working hours, pinpoint potentially affected workers, estimate the macroeconomic repercussions, and propose economic policy measures to amplify the positive effects of the reform while mitigating the negative ones.

Wages will attract close attention in the coming months. First, because rising inflation is placing wages under strain. Second, because there is uncertainty as to how much bargaining power employees and employers will have.

With changes to labor regulations being proposed, priority should be given to addressing structural challenges that have not been resolved by the reforms that have taken place in recent years. Among these factors that are embedded in the Spanish economy is productivity.

In this paper, the productivity of the public sector in Spain is analyzed comparatively. Although the public sector is not the main cause behind the negative behavior of productivity in Spain, there is ample room for improvement to reach the levels of efficiency and effectiveness presented by the rest of the main peers.

The General Purpose Technology advancements, Information Communication Technology and digitization, are the common factors behind three major trickle-down structural contributors to stagnant real wage growth – low productivity growth, the decline in labor income share, and the rise in wage growth distribution inequality.