8  BIS central bankers’ speeches  The upshot was that, whereas the Irish labour market facilitated some adjustment through prices, the Spanish labour market adjusted primarily through quantities: firms were forced to reduce labour costs by reducing employment.
And due to a high degree of duality in the Spanish labour market, this burden of adjustment was concentrated in particular on a less protected group – those on temporary contracts. These had been particularly prevalent in Spain in advance of the crisis, accounting for around one third of all employment contracts.