In total, there are about 3.45 million foreigners officially employed in the country. This represents approximately 15% of all workers registered in the social security system, according to The Olive Press.
Growth has accelerated sharply due to the migrant regularization program. The Spanish government accepted applications from April through June, and during that time, nearly 1.175 million applications were submitted to participate in the program. By the end of June, more than 159,000 people had already been registered in the social security system.
However, foreigners are entering the Spanish labor market not only through regularization. They are actively working in sectors where demand is particularly high. For example, in June, foreigners accounted for nearly one-third of workers in the hotel and restaurant industry, about 30% of those employed in agriculture, and 26% in construction.
According to El País, the composition of the foreign workforce is also changing. For the first time in Spain, the number of workers from Latin America has surpassed that of foreign workers from other European countries—1.23 million versus 1.19 million. The largest increase over the past year was among workers from Colombia—72,700 people. They were followed by Venezuela with 43,700 and Peru with 27,800.
At the same time, Moroccan citizens remain the largest group of foreign workers—about 422,000 people.
The growth in foreign employment continued in July. Over the course of the month, the number of registered foreign workers increased by another 66,000, while the total number of workers in the country rose by 41,700.
