A JEP Freedom of Information Code inquiry has revealed that 1,550 public sector employees are retained on contracts that can range from a week to five years.
The 1,550 employees comprise something like a fifth of the total States workforce of 6,490.
According to the Human Resources Department, workers on time-limited contracts include teachers, health professionals and specialists who the States have been unable to recruit from inside the Island.
Soon, though, every States worker on a time-limited contract could have the same rights as his or her permanently employed colleagues.
Employment and Social Security had proposed 1 May as the start date for the long-awaited Employment Law, but it looks likely to be delayed.
At the moment the positions are almost the same, except for things like maternity leave, which is not available to most time-limited employees.
