Social Security exceeds 3,076,000 foreign contributors after adding more than 200,000 in the last year

Social Security recorded 3,076,841 foreign registered workers in February in the original series, after adding 202,443 in the last 12 months. The year-on-year change is over 7%.

Overall, the number of foreign registered workers has increased by more than 800,000 since February 2022. In fact, 43.7% of the jobs created since the implementation of the labour reform correspond to foreign workers.

In month-on-month terms, Social Security recorded 38,683 more employed individuals compared to the previous month.

In the system as a whole, foreign workers now account for 14.2% of the total number of Social Security contributors, six tenths of a percentage point more than a year ago.

If we discount seasonality and calendar effects, in the last month, the number of employed people from other countries increased by 22,221, reaching 3,181,111 registered workers.

"Our country is experiencing one of the most dynamic periods in its labour market in recent history, and the role of foreign workers in this is undeniable," explains the Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz. "Their significant share in the total number of registered workers reflects the dynamism of our economy and the integration capacity of the Spanish labour market".

Venezuelan workers, the fastest-growing group of workers

Of all foreign workers registered with Social Security, nearly 1.8 million are men, while the number of women exceeds 1.3 million. Female workers from other countries represent 42.6% of the total foreign workforce.

Around 30% of foreign workers registered with Social Security come from European Union countries.

Among the different nationalities, Venezuelan workers are the fastest growing group in the last year, with 35,289 more registered workers than in February 2015. The number of Venezuelan nationals registered with Social Security has increased ninefold in the last decade. The increase has also been particularly significant among workers from Colombia, whose numbers have quadrupled, and from Peru, whose numbers have increased 2.5 times.

On the other hand, Morocco remains the country with the most nationals registered with Social Security, with 375,845 contributors, followed by Romania (336,214), Colombia (252,869), Venezuela (213,476), Italy (203,562), China (125,764), Peru (101,559), and Ukraine (78,824).

General Social Security Scheme

The contribution of foreign workers is particularly relevant in some sectors of the General Social Security Scheme. In Hospitality, they represent 28.9% of contributors; in Agriculture, 26.8%; in Construction, 24%; in Transportation, 17.7%; and in Administrative Activities, 17.4%. In the Special System for Domestic Workers, they represent 42.4%, and in the Agricultural System, 37.9%.

Furthermore, it is important to highlight the high percentage of foreign workers with permanent contracts, 88.7% of the total, which is even higher than that of Spanish workers (88.4%). When compared to the average percentage for the period 2017-2021, prior to the labour reform (58.9%), the figure is even more striking.

Meanwhile, the temporary employment rate for this group of workers has fallen to historic lows, with the percentage of foreign workers with temporary contracts dropping to 11.3%, also below that of Spanish nationals (11.6%). This percentage contrasts sharply with the average for the 2017-2021 period, which reached 41.1% of the total.

Entrepreneurship in high-skill sectors

The growth in foreign employment is particularly significant in self-employment, which in February exceeded 500,000 workers (500,037). This growth represents a 6% increase compared to the same month in 2015, well above the overall growth of the self-employed sector (+1.1%).

It is worth noting the growing presence of foreign workers starting businesses in highly skilled sectors such as Telecommunications and Computer Programming, and Publishing, Broadcasting, and Content Production and Distribution. The number of foreign self-employed workers in Telecommunications has grown by 10.7% in the last year and in Publishing Activities by 9.22%.

Non official translation