Foreign affiliates increase above 2.7 million in March, their all-time high

In March, Social Security counted 2,785,473 foreign affiliates, adjusting for seasonality and calendar effects. This marks a record in the number of foreign workers, with an increase of 23,388 affiliates compared to the previous month. Since February 2020, before the impact of the pandemic, The system has seen an increase of 596,052 workers of foreign origin. This total represents 13.2% of all Social Security affiliates in seasonally adjusted terms.

In the original series, Social Security reported a total of 2,734,119 foreign affiliates, with an increase of 62,573 employed people in March (2.3%), and 208,231 in the last twelve months (8.2%). This month marks the record for foreign affiliates in average terms. In the original series, the percentage of foreign workers over the total number of people affiliated with Social Security stands at 13.1%.

Of the total foreign affiliates, 32.4% are workers from European Union countries. The most numerous nationalities are from Romania, Morocco, Colombia, Italy, Venezuela and China.

Regarding gender distribution, approximately 1.5 million are men, while the number of women exceeds 1.2 million. It is notable that the number of foreign women affiliated has experienced growth of 30.5% since before the pandemicsurpassing the growth of men by 3.3 points.

Members of Ukrainian nationality amount to 67,846. This figure is 20,587 higher than in January 2022, before the start of the war, representing a growth of 43.6%. The majority of workers from Ukraine, approximately 85.2%, are registered in the General Scheme (salaried workers), while the remaining 14.8% are self-employed.

In terms of regimes and sectors, 83.7% of foreign affiliates are in the General Regime, with a total of 2,287,519 workers, which represents an increase of 2.5% compared to February 2024.

In the last 12 months, ten sectors of activity have experienced growth of more than 10%. Hospitality is the sector that has experienced the greatest growth, with an increase of 13.9%followed by Electrical Energy Supply (11.1%), Health Activities (10.9%), Commerce (10.7%), Administrative Activities (10.7%), Financial Activities (10. 3%), and Artistic, Recreational and Entertainment Activities (10.1%).

High value added

The year-on-year growth is also notable in sectors with high added value, such as Information and Telecommunications, which increased by 8.9%, and in Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities, with an increase of 7.4% in the last year. Within these sections, Cinematographic Activities (with an increase of almost 22%), Architectural Technical Services (14.2%), and Programming (12.3%) stand out as the most dynamic.

In terms of specific activities, national workers from other countries represent more than 20% of the total affiliates in Activities of Extraterritorial Organizations and Bodies (28.8%), Hospitality (26.7%), Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing (24.4%), and Construction (20.7%). In the Special Household System, 45.4% are foreign workers, while in the Special Agrarian System, they represent 35.7%.

Regarding the Self-Employed Regime, counts 441,594 contributors of other nationalities, which is equivalent to 13.1% of the total of these workers. In the last year, Foreign affiliates in this regime have increased by 7.1%.