La Seguridad Social cierra el año con 212.000 afiliados extranjeros más y supera los 2,9 millones de ocupados

The Social Security registered 2,927,598 foreign affiliates in December, once the seasonality and the calendar effect were discounted, after adding 16,536 people. Foreign employment closes 2024 in historical figures, a trend that has been maintained throughout the year, practically.

Since December 2019, before the impact of the pandemic, the system has recorded an increase of 765,199 workers from other countries, that is, 35.6% more. In the context of general membership, foreign workers account for 13.7% of the total employed, six tenths more than a year ago.

Average affiliation

In average terms and without seasonalizing, that is, in the original series, Social Security counted 2,280,818 members from other countries, which represents an increase of 212,042 in the last year.

The highest number of foreign people who contribute to Social Security is recorded in both the original and the seasonally adjusted series of a month of November.
31.1% are workers from countries of the European Union. Of all nationalities, Morocco tops the list of countries from which the largest number of contributors comes, followed by Romania, Colombia, Italy, Venezuela and China.
Of the total number of affiliated persons from other countries, there are 1.6 million men and the number of foreign women is close to 1.3 million, after growing by 35.2% since before the pandemic. The number of female members exceeds 43 per cent of the total number of foreign workers.

More than 70,000 Ukrainian affiliates

Among other nationalities, there are 72,376 members from Ukraine, 25,117 more than in January 2022, when the war had not yet begun, representing a growth of 53.1%.
The majority of workers from Ukraine, about 83.2%, are in the General System (they are salaried) and 16.8% are self-employed.

Regimes and sectors

Overall, 83.6% of foreign affiliates were covered by the General Social Security System, with 2,408,646 workers. The proportion is similar to the group of affiliates; around 84% is also included in this Regime.
In the last 12 months, five sectors of activity grew above 10%: Transportation and Storage (16%), Administrative Activities and Auxiliary Services (11%), Water Supply (10.8%), Sanitary Activities (10.3%), Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (10.1%).

The distribution by sector shows a diversification in the areas of employment with greater occupation of workers of foreign origin.

High value-added activities

On the other hand, this year-on-year increase is also very remarkable in activities of high added value where there is a notable growth within this General Regime in sectors such as Financial Activities (9.5%), Information and Communications, which increases by more than 7.1% and in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities, with an increase in the last year of 6.6%.

By activity, foreign workers account for more than 20% of the total membership in: Activities of Extraterritorial Organizations and Bodies (28%), Hotel Management (27.8%), Agriculture, Livestock, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (24.6%) and Construction (21.5%). In the Special System of Domestic Workers, about 44% are foreign workers, and in the Special Agrarian System, almost 35%.

For its part, the Special System of Self-Employed Workers counted 467,616 contributors from other nationalities, that is, 13.8% of the total number of self-employed workers. In the last year, foreign affiliates in this regime have increased by 8.3%. 
 

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