Blog

– Index –

Date: 30/04/2025
Author: Francisco Massó Mora

FROM ENTREPRENEURSHIP TO PUBLIC SERVICE: THE SYMPTOM OF A DECAYING SYSTEM.

In Spain, there are now more civil servants than self-employed workers. According to the Active Population Survey, in the first quarter of 2025, public employees outnumbered self-employed workers running their own businesses by nearly 240,000 people. This gap is not new, but its consolidation reveals a profound structural shift in our labor market.

We are witnessing a silent but very significant reversal. Public employment is on the rise, while the role of the self-employed is shrinking. The problem is not just numerical, but also economic and social. If we continue down this path, Spain will become less dynamic, less innovative and more dependent on a state that paradoxically relies on a shrinking tax base.

In the year 2000, there were 150,000 more self-employed workers than public employees. Today, the situation is reversed, with over 3.49 million public employees compared to just 3.26 million self-employed individuals. While public employment has grown nearly 20% since the 2008 financial crisis, the self-employed sector has barely increased by 3.3%. This disparity is not solely attributable to demographic factors, but rather the result of an institutional design that penalizes entrepreneurship, productivity, competitiveness and the creation of sustainable employment.

It’s not that there is a lack of initiatives to encourage self-employment, but many have been timid, poorly designed, or ineffective. Temporary tax breaks for new self-employed workers have not delivered the expected results. After the first year, the fiscal and administrative burdens push thousands of young entrepreneurs out. The same can be said for the Digital Kit and other poorly communicated, slow, or bureaucratic aids. The outcome is a youth without real incentives to take risks and create.

Even more concerning, these measures are designed in a static manner, without a long-term strategic vision that integrates young people into a real entrepreneurial ecosystem, with access to funding, mentors, innovation and markets.

Moreover, the transformation of traditional sectors such as retail, hospitality, or agriculture—once the natural niche for self-employed workers—has not been accompanied by policies that facilitate their succession or conversion. Faced with the growth of chains, franchises, and digital platforms, small businesses are withering away.

If structural reforms are not implemented, Spain will remain trapped in a low-dynamics model, with a less competitive economy, a weak productive fabric and an excessive reliance on public employment. The result will not only be increased fiscal pressure on the most productive sectors but also a progressive deterioration in the quality of public services, which will become unsustainable without a solid economic base.

The debate is not ideological, it is about accounting and structure. Spain needs an economy that produces more than it consumes. If investment is not made in revitalizing self-employment, entrepreneurship and the productive fabric, the next fiscal crisis will not be temporary, it will be systemic and chronic.

Share in social networks:

– Index –
Previous | Next