FOREIGN workers have accounted for over half of the new jobs created in Spain over the past year.
Data from Spain’s social security has revealed that 58% of all new jobs in Spain in 2026 up to June were filled by foreign workers, a jump up from 42% a year earlier.
This increase has been put down to a new government migrant regularisation programme, which prime minister Pedro Sanchez announced earlier this year.
The programme, which opened applications in April through to June, aimed to grant undocumented foreigners and asylum applicants already in the country a renewable one-year work permit and residency.
READ MORE: Spain’s immigration amnesty descends into chaos as people queue for days and fights break out across the country
As a result, this is the first time new foreign workers have surpassed Spanish nationals in annual employment growth since the record began in 2012.
In June 2025, employment among Spanish nationals had increased by around 271,200, while foreign employment rose by 187,900.
In June 2026, the same year as the programme, foreign employment shot up to an increase of 350,200 – overtaking new employment amongst Spanish nationals, whose increase remained fairly stable at 255,100.
Data shows the fastest growth of foreign workers have been from Latin America – with over 198,900 new workers.
Colombians accounted for the largest of this increase, with 72,700 additional Colombian workers registered in the past year.
Venezuelan workers accounted for the second largest of this increase, with 43,700 new registrations, followed by Peru, with 27,800.
This marks the first time on record that Latin American workers have outnumbered European foreign workers in Spain – 1.23 million from Latin American, and 1.19 million from foreign European countries.
Spain has seen 81,900 new jobs from African workers, and 30,200 from Asian workers, an increase in both compared to the previous year.
Morocco remains the largest foreign nationality in Spain’s workforce, with 422,300 registered workers across the country, 47,300 of which registered this past year.
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What’s the context for this? What type of jobs are these?
As an American, I have to point out that in the U.S., immigrants take jobs that locals don’t want–especially back-breaking work like construction and working on farms. Now that Trump is deporting nearly everyone (just like the “remigration” policy Vox supports), farms and construction companies are going under due to labor shortages. I know Spain and some other European countries need immigrants to continue to succeed economically. So–which is it? Are immigrants taking jobs from locals? Or are they filling a need?
With no context or further information about what type of jobs they’re “taking” (and that Sanchez is being “blamed for”), this comes across as inflammatory clickbait.
Clickbait it isn’t – we don’t need to do that with tens of thousands of registered users.
It’s based on facts.
The person who commented wasn’t disagreeing with the facts that you published; they were asking for more details about the sectors. And while the last paragraph is unnecessary (and inflammatory), this is a brilliant question… Are immigrants taking jobs from locals, or are they filling a need?
Hi Susan, you’re right, it was a very good comment with an unnecessary sign off comment.
It has prompted me to look up the answer, which will make for a very interesting article.
I’ll give you a taster here: The month-by-month Social Security data shows the job surge is overwhelmingly concentrated in hospitality, care work and construction — and it accelerated almost exactly when the amnesty scheme opened. So we’re digging into whether that’s Spain filling jobs no one else wants, or something more contested, in a full follow-up.