La Seguridad Social registra un nuevo máximo con 3.360.000 afiliados extranjeros, tras un aumento de más de 111.000 en el último mes

Social Security has again registered a new maximum of foreign affiliates both in the original series, medium, and in seasonally adjusted terms. Specifically, there are 3,359,548 affiliates on average in May, which is 111,301 more occupied than in the previous month and 288,717 more than a year ago. This figure puts the year-on-year variation at 9.4%, when in the affiliation of the total it is 2.5%.

If the seasonality and the effect of the calendar are discounted, Social Security already has 3,251,519 foreign affiliates, after adding 279,433 in the last 12 months.

Foreigners are a big part of the engine of growth in our country. There are foreigners present in all sectors. Although in some, such as the hotel, construction or agricultural sector, they are essential; we see that their presence grows in all” explains Minister Elma Saiz.

To which the minister adds “in addition, there is an increasing presence of foreigners in the special regime of self-employed workers who are in turn generating employment, in many cases in sectors of high added value such as Information Technology or Telecommunications”.

Overall, the number of foreign affiliates has totaled more than 900,000 employed since May 2022. In fact, 43.4% of the employment created since the implementation of the labor 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 working women from other countries is increasing overall and represents 43.1% of the total number of foreign workers.

About 30% of foreign affiliates come from European Union countries.

Morocco continues to be the country with the most members of the Spanish Social Security and already exceeds 420,000 contributors (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 employed persons

Although they account for 15 per cent of all workers, the contribution of foreign workers is particularly relevant in some sectors of the General Social Security System. In Hospitality, they represent 30.4% of the members; in Agriculture, 28.8%; in Construction, they represent 25.1%; in Transport, 17.9%; and in Administrative Activities, 18.1%. In addition, in the Special Household System, they account for 44.22% and in the Agrarian System, 42.4%.
In addition, it is necessary to highlight the high percentage of foreign workers with indefinite contracts, 88.5% of the total. If we compare it with the average percentage of the period 2017-2021, prior to the labor reform (58.9%) the data is even more striking.

In parallel, the temporary rate of this group of workers falls to historical lows, with the percentage of foreign affiliates with temporary contracts falling to 11.5%, also below that of nationals (11.8%). That percentage contrasts with the average for the period 2017-2021, which reached 41.1% of the total.

Entrepreneurship in highly qualified 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. 
We must point out the growing presence of foreign workers who undertake in highly qualified sectors such as Telecommunications and Computer Programming, where they already represent 32.4% of the employed registered in this section of activity, that is, they are already one in three entrepreneurs. Also very important is its representation in other activities, such as Household Activities (27%), Hospitality (25.5%), Administrative Activities (18.6%) Real Estate Activities (18.4%) and Construction (18.1%).

Additional information in Excel and on the web: 
https://w6.seg-social.es/PXWeb/pxweb/es