How temporary is temporary employment in Spain?

We use the Spanish Labor Force Survey (EPA) for the period 1987-1996 to study trends, characteristics, and labor force transitions of temporary workers. These are workers who hold fixed-term contracts, which the Spanish labor law distinguishes from indefinite contracts. Since the EPA questionnaire allows us to identify permanent from temporary workers, we are able to compare their characteristics. More importantly, we can use matched fIles from the same data source to analyze transitions from temporary to permanent employment. The aim is to test the extent to which temporary workers tend to be trapped in temporary employment relationships. Indeed, we fmd some evidence of this