Labor Market Integration and Employment Concepts

Occupational Insertion

Occupational Insertion: The full integration of people of working age into employment. This sector is an active policy instrument for employment. Its primary objective is the integration or reintegration of the population demanding employment into a particular occupation, emphasizing qualification, retraining, or updating professional skills. For decades, the unemployment problem has been defined by its considerable statistical magnitude, and insertion is a function of market laws. Some types of insertion projects are aimed at:

• Youth seeking their first employment or those with low skills.
• Collectives with insertion difficulties: people with disabilities, immigrants, women with family responsibilities, ex-inmates, etc.
• People in need of reintegration into the labor market.

Employment Definitions

Salary: Payment in cash or in kind from an employer to the employee who performs the work for which they were hired.

Part-time Workday: A workday where the employee works fewer hours than the standard 8-hour daily shift.

Employment Contract: An agreement between an employer and an employee where the latter agrees to provide certain services on behalf of the employer under their direction in exchange for a salary.

Minimum Wage (SMI): The wage set annually by the government; an employee cannot receive less than the established SMI.

Social Security and Labor Institutions

National Institute of Social Security (INSS): An agency dependent on the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs that manages and organizes economic benefits of the Spanish Social Security system, including the recognition of health care and entitlement to benefits.

General Treasury of Social Security: An agency dependent on the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs that manages financial resources and the financial administration of the Social Security system.

National Employment Institute (INEM): Its functions are directed toward information collection, management of employment offers, and unemployment protection aid.

National Health Institute (INSALUD) / SAS: A Social Security management entity for the administration of health services and health promotion.

Working Hours

Workday: The period in which services are provided as agreed in a collective agreement or employment contract in exchange for a salary. The maximum duration of a normal working day is 40 hours per week.

Full-time Workday: Working full time, not exceeding 9 hours daily unless otherwise agreed. The ordinary day must include a break of 12 hours between the completion of one shift and the beginning of the next.