MADRID, 16 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Social Security lost an average of 37,183 foreign affiliates in January, 1.4% less than the previous month, bringing the first month of the year to 2,631,593 immigrant workers registered in the system.
With the decline in January, the month in which employment historically drops due to the end of the Christmas campaign, the average affiliation of foreigners returns to the declines after gaining just over 1,000 employees in December 2023.
Of the total number of foreign workers existing at the end of January, 56.2% were men and 43.8% were women, as reported this Friday by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration.
Discounting seasonality and the calendar effect, the affiliation of foreigners to Social Security increased in January by 24,056 contributors, to a total of 2,736,169 employed persons, a record number in the seasonally adjusted series.
Since February 2020, before the impact of the pandemic, the number of foreign contributors has increased by 546,748 employees, as highlighted by the Ministry headed by Elma Saiz.
As a whole, foreign workers represented 12.8% of the total number of people who were affiliated with Social Security at the end of January.
Of the total number of foreigners affiliated at the end of the first month of the year, 852,163 came from EU countries (32.4%) and 1,779,430 came from third countries (67.6%).
The largest groups of foreign workers are workers from Romania (328,464), Morocco (318,750), Italy (173,458), Colombia (174,388) and Venezuela (146,469).
In addition, the system has 65,511 members from Ukraine, 18,252 more than in January 2022 (38.6%), before the start of the war waged in the country by Russia.
The majority of workers from Ukraine who work in Spain, 85.7%, are salaried and 14.3% are self-employed.
In the last year, the average affiliation of foreign workers has increased by 196,034 employees, which in relative terms implies an increase of 8.1%.
THE HOSPITALITY CUT FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT BY 3%
By regime, the majority of foreigners fall under the General Regime, which closed January with 2,196,041 foreign affiliates, 83.4% of the total and 1.6% less than in December.
For its part, the Special Regime for Self-Employed Workers (RETA) ended January with 431,345 foreign contributors, 0.08% less than the previous month. Of them, 14.8% are of Chinese nationality, followed by Romanians (11%) and Italians (8.8%).
Within the General Regime, the sectors that lost the most foreign contributors in January, in relative values, were administrative activities (-4.1%) and hospitality (-3%).
The Special Agrarian System (which is part of the General Regime) registered a monthly decrease in foreign affiliates of 2.2% and the Home System, of 0.09%.
By autonomous community, the average affiliation of foreigners fell in January in all of them, mainly in Catalonia (-8,473 contributors) and the Valencian Community (-7,960).
The largest monthly decrease, in relative values, was recorded in Extremadura, where the average affiliation of foreign workers decreased by 7%.
