According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of the world’s advanced economies, Spain is expected to see job growth of 2.9 percent this year and 2.8 in 2016.

This put Spain second only to Iceland for job employment growth in 2015 at 4.1 percent, and at a tie for 2015 with New Zealand. For 2016, Spain and Greece topped all other countries for growth.

The report projected that Spain would still continue to have relatively high unemployment over the coming two years, second only to Greece.

In comparison, the average OECD unemployment rate for this year is projected to be 6.8 percent, while in 2016 it is estimated to be 6.5 percent.

Of European OECD countries, the average unemployment rate is expected to be 10.8 percent this year and 10.3 percent next year.

Still, by 2016 the Spanish unemployment rate is predicted to be 19.7 percent, dropping below the 20 percent mark where it has not been since 2009.

The report seemed to signal some hope for Spain, which has been hit comparatively hard by the global financial crisis with unemployment at a high of nearly 26 percent in 2012 and 2013 and youth unemployment of those under 25 hovering above 50 percent.

But even though the OECD predicted improvements for Spain, the report also pointed out a concern within the Spanish labour market: temporary contracts.

“Workers on fixed-term contracts are particularly quick to be affected by changes in business cycle conditions,” the report states. “This group accounted for most of the initial job losses when the recession struck, as well as most of the initial hiring once the recovery began.”

Spain still has one of the highest incidences of temporary contracts, second to Poland; around 24 percent of working Spaniards. 

The report said that the proportion of temporary contract workers has “declined the most strongly in Spain”, dropping 7 percentage points since the crisis began, but this number has started to climb up again.

The OECD recommended that countries boost their efforts to assist jobseekers, noting that spending in Spain on “active labour market programmes”, designed to create more opportunities for those looking for work, had fallen by more than 50 percent between 2007 and 2013.