Social Security registers a new record with more than 3,360,000 foreign affiliates, following an increase of more than 111,000 in the last month

Social Security has once again registered a new record for foreign affiliates, both in the original, average and seasonally adjusted figures. Specifically, there are 3,359,548 affiliates on average in April, which is 111,301 more than in the previous month and 288,717 more than a year ago. This figure puts the year-on-year change at 9.4%, whereas the overall increase in registrations stands at 2.5%.

Discounting the calendar effect, Social Security now has 3,251,519 registered foreign workers, after adding 279,433 in the last 12 months.

"Foreigners are a major driving force behind our country's growth." There are foreigners working in every sector. "Although they are essential in some sectors, such as hospitality, construction and agriculture, we are seeing their presence growing across the board," explains Minister Elma Saiz.

The minister added: "Furthermore, there is a growing number of foreign nationals in the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers, who in turn are creating jobs, in many cases in high value-added sectors such as IT and telecommunications."

Overall, the number of foreign affiliates has increased by more than 900,000 since April 2022. In fact, 43.4% of the employment created since the implementation of the labour reform corresponds to foreign workers.

Average affiliation

Of the 3,360,000 foreign affiliates, 1.9 million are men, while the number of women exceeds 1.4 million for the first time. The presence of female workers from other countries is increasing overall and represents 43.1% of all foreign workers.

Around 30% of foreign workers come from European Union countries.

Morocco remains the country with the most national insurance contributors, now exceeding 420,000 (420,939). It is followed by Romania (355,087), Colombia (291,371), Venezuela (231,635), Italy (220,474), China (130,777), Peru (114,264) and Ukraine (83,049).

Sectors of salaried workers

While they represent 15% of all registered workers, the contribution of foreign workers is particularly significant in some sectors of the General Social Security Scheme. In Hospitality, they represent 30.4% of contributors; in Agriculture, 28.8%; in Construction, 25.1%; in Transportation, 17.9%; and in Administrative Activities, 18.1%. In the Special System for Domestic Workers, they represent 44.22%, and in the Agricultural System, 42.4%.

In addition, it is worth noting the high percentage of foreign workers with permanent contracts, 88.5% of the total. 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 11.5%, also below that of Spanish nationals (11.8%). This percentage contrasts sharply with the average for the 2017-2021 period, which reached 41.1% of the total.

Entrepreneurship in high-skill sectors

On the other hand, the number of self-employed workers continues to grow and stands at 519,137, which is 7.25% more than a year ago.

It is worth noting the growing presence of foreign workers who are starting businesses in highly skilled sectors such as Telecommunications and Computer Programming, where they now represent 32.4% of those registered in this sector, meaning they are now one in three entrepreneurs. Their representation is also significant in other activities, such as Household Activities (27%), Hotels and restaurants (25.5%), Administrative Activities (18.6%), Real Estate Activities (18.4%) and Construction (18.1%).

Non official translation