According to data from Supera Oposiciones, a specialist exam-preparation school belonging to the Power Education group, 55% of current candidates previously worked as employees in the private sector, while only 6.7% are recent graduates.
This represents a significant change from the traditional image of a civil-service candidate as a young person who has just finished university. The average age of candidates is now 37, and more than 60% are between the ages of 25 and 44.
Public-sector employment is therefore increasingly becoming a career-change option for professionals who are already well established in their working lives. One of the main reasons behind this shift is the search for greater certainty and stability.
For 40% of candidates, employment stability and security are the main factors encouraging them to pursue a public-sector career. Another 20% cite dissatisfaction with insecure working conditions or with corporate culture in the private sector as their main motivation.
Security rather than aspiration
The attraction of public employment goes beyond purely financial considerations such as salary.
The possibility of combining a professional career with personal and family plans is emerging as an important differentiating factor. 42% of candidates believe that Spain’s public administration is the only working environment in the country where having children does not negatively affect career progression.
In addition, 56.2% believe that securing a public-sector position would give them significant stability when making major life decisions, such as starting a family or buying a home.
The commitment to this employment model appears particularly strong. Almost half of candidates, 49.5%, say they would continue preparing for public-sector examinations even if private companies offered exactly the same work-life balance guarantees as the public sector.
More than 70% remote working: a key requirement
Public-sector employment could also help address one of Spain’s structural problems: the concentration of professional opportunities in its largest cities.
Candidates give the decentralisation of state institutions an average score of 8 out of 10 as a way of attracting and retaining skilled workers in less populated parts of Spain. Some 26.7% give this proposal the maximum possible score.
However, simply relocating public institutions away from major cities would not necessarily be enough to persuade professionals to move.
Workplace flexibility appears to be crucial. For 36.2% of candidates, being able to work remotely for between 70% and 100% of their working hours would be the main incentive to relocate to a rural area.
This is considered more important than financial incentives or regional bonuses, mentioned by 32.4%, or preferential access to housing, mentioned by 17%.
The quality of the jobs offered would also be important if regional public-sector offices were to become candidates’ preferred choice.
Some 39% want positions that are as professionally attractive as, or more attractive than, those available in major cities. Another 26.7% prioritise greater workplace flexibility, while 21% believe additional salary supplements would be necessary to offset living costs.
According to Jesús Polvorinos of Supera Oposiciones, the figures point to a significant transformation in what Spanish professionals expect from employment.
Rather than indicating that workers have lost interest in private-sector careers, the trend suggests that experienced professionals are reassessing what constitutes a high-quality job. Public employment is increasingly attracting mature and experienced private-sector workers who are looking for stability and greater certainty while developing their personal and family plans.
Remote working and the decentralisation of public institutions could therefore also provide an opportunity to distribute skilled employment more evenly across Spain, provided that public-sector positions outside the country’s major cities remain professionally attractive and sufficiently flexible.