Foreign contributors reach 3 million after increasing by more than 8% in the last year

In the last twelve months, the number of people employed from other countries has increased by 8%. The year 2025 starts with a new peak in seasonally adjusted foreign employment, in line with the trend that continued throughout 2024.

Since the implementation of the labour reform in 2022, the system has recorded an increase of 573,223 workers from other countries, i.e., 25.3% more. This means that 45.1% of the employment created from 2022 onwards will be by foreign workers. In the context of overall contribution, foreign national workers account for 13.8% of the total number of employed people, six tenths of a percentage point more than a year ago.

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Average contributors

In average terms and without seasonal adjustment, i.e., in the original series, Social Security registered 2,843,029 contributors from other countries, 211,436 more in the last year and 37,789 less than in December, in line with January.

This is the highest number of total foreign contributors to Social Security in both the original and seasonally adjusted series for a month of January.

A total of 31.1% are workers from EU countries. Of all the nationalities, Morocco heads the list of countries with the highest number of contributors, followed by Romania, Colombia, Italy, Venezuela and China.

Of the total number of contributors from other countries, 1.6 million are men and the number of foreign women stands at 1.2 million, having grown by 35.2% since before the pandemic. The number of female contributors now exceeds 43% of the total number of foreign workers.

More permanent employment and less temporary employment

The quality of employment among foreign-born workers has improved markedly, with a significant increase in permanent contracts following the labour reform.

In particular, the data for the General Regime reflect a structural change in the stability of their employment. While in the period 2017-2021 only 59% of foreign workers had a permanent contract, in January 2025 this percentage has increased to 88.7%, an increase of 29 percentage points.

At the same time, temporary employment has been drastically reduced, from 41% in the period 2017-2021 to 11.3% today. This development puts foreign workers in a better position in the labour market, with higher levels of stability and protection.

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The growth of permanent employment in this group is higher than that of all workers, which shows the positive impact of the reform in improving their working conditions.

This change is part of the general trend of consolidation of permanent employment, which not only benefits Spanish workers, but also strengthens the integration and job security of foreign workers.

Regimes and sectors

Overall, 83.4% of foreign national contributors were in the General Social Security Regime, with 2,371,289 workers. This proportion is similar to that of total contributors, with around 83.8% in the General Regime.

In the last 12 months, in all sectors of activity, enrolment of foreigners in the General Regime grew by around 7.9%, and in three of them by more than 10%: Transport and Storage (25%), Water Supply (11.8), Administrative Activities (10.4%).

The distribution by sector shows a diversification in the areas of employment with the highest number of foreign workers.

High added value activities

Furthermore, this year-on-year increase is also very notable in high value-added activities, where substantial growth is observed within this General Regime in sectors such as Financial Activities (9.5%), Information and Communications, which increased by 7.2%, and in Scientific and Technical Professional Activities, with an increase of 6.2% in the last year.

By activity, foreign nationals account for more than 20% of the total number of contributors in: Hotels (27.8%), Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (24.9%) and Construction (21.5%). In the Special System for Household Employees, more than 43% are foreign workers and in the Special Agrarian System, 35%.

In November, the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers accounted for 467,355 contributors of other nationalities, i.e. 13.9% of the total number of self-employed people. In the last year, the number of foreign national contributors in this regime has increased by 8.4%.

More than 70,000 Ukrainian contributors

Among other nationalities, there are 72,011 contributors from Ukraine, 24,752 more than in January 2022, prior to the start of the war, representing a 52.4% growth.

The majority of workers (82.5%) from Ukraine are in the General Regime, i.e., they are salaried workers, and 17.4% are self-employed.

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Non official translation