Spain passes labor market reforms to help people with temporary contracts

Spain passes labor market reforms to help people with temporary contracts

Spain's economy has been a bright spot in the European Union, with more than a decade of nonstop growth, and unemployment is now at a 20-year low of just under 9 percent.

But one of the dark sides of Spain's economic success is that an estimated 5 million workers in Spain have fixed-term contracts that deny them job security or severance pay, Labor Minister Jesus Caldera said Friday. Young people and women are particularly hard-hit.

It is a widespread practice for Spanish employers to give workers one temporary contract after another, rather than sign them on to a permanent one, the AP reports.