

Sections
Highlight
Last year was the fourth consecutive year in which the number of foreigners registered with Spain's Social Security saw a growth of more than 10% in Malaga province. The average number of 102,469 Malaga-based contributors born in other countries is 10.7% more than the one recorded in 2023 (92,579). It should be noted, that this figure comes after an increase of 11% in 2023 and an increase of over 14% in the two years before that.
To sum up, in the last four years the number of foreign contributors in Malaga has grown by more than 60%, from 63,520 at the end of 2020 to around 102,500 at the end of 2024. Moreover, the figure has more than doubled since a decade ago, when 44,785 had been registered by the end of 2014.
What has happened to foreign employment in Spain in general? The rate of enrolment of foreign workers has been somewhat lower than that recorded in Malaga province. The increase in the last two years has been close to (but still under) 10%. In 2021 and 2022, the increase exceeded double digits, but by a very small margin.
In the last four years, the number of foreigners registered with Social Security across the whole country has grown by 48%, from 1.68 million in December 2020 to 2.48 million at the end of 2024. In the last decade, the number of foreign affiliates contributing to Social Security has increased by 117%, from just 1.14 million in December 2014. This is an increase that, once again, doesn't surpass the one in Malaga, since the province alone has seen an increase in foreign workforce close to 130% in the last decade.
For the first time in history, Malaga closed last year with more than 100,000 foreign Social Security affiliates. This figure places it in fifth place among the Spanish provinces with the highest number of workers of foreign origin. The Costa del Sol province stands behind Madrid (550,704), Barcelona (474,719), Valencia (145,416) and Alicante (113,952) and ahead of the Balearic Islands (93,612).
Within Andalucía, Malaga is followed, but far behind, by Almeria (41,588 foreign contributors) and Seville (36,424). Meanwhile, Jaén is among the Spanish provinces with the lowest number of foreign contributors (less than 6,000 at the end of last year).
15.1% of foreign contributors
have joined Malaga's workforce as a whole by the end of 2024. Ten years ago, this figure was less than 10%.
Malaga, however, is not among the provinces where foreign employment has grown the most in the last ten years. Among the territories with the highest number of foreign workers, Valencia stands with an increase close to 180%, rising from 52,000 in December 2014 to over 145,000 at the end of 2024.
Meanwhile, within Andalucía, Seville has seen the strongest growth over the last decade, with foreign contributors rising by 135%. In Huelva and Córdoba, the increase is only 30%, to 9,516 and 8,212, respectively.
Back to Malaga, where, in the last ten years, workers born outside Spain have gone from representing 9.7% of the total labour force to accounting for more than 15%. This trend is due to the fact that, while foreign employment has grown at rates exceeding 10% in the past four years, employment in the province, regardless of origin, has expanded at a slower pace. In Malaga, the largest recent increase took place in 2021, immediately after the pandemic: in that year total employment rebounded by 7.7%, after having fallen by nearly 4% a year earlier, while in 2024 the rise was close to 4%. In all of these years, foreign employment has risen by more than 10%.
To wrap up, we once again look at Spain as a whole, where in 2014 foreign workers accounted for 7.35% of the total number of contributors. Ten years, later they have come to account for 12.25%.
In what activities are foreign workers in Malaga mainly employed? The largest group at the end of 2024 was made up of those employed in the hotel and catering industry (more than 24,700 workers), followed by those working in commerce (almost 16,000). Meanwhile, in construction there were about 12,000. In administrative and auxiliary services, there were 9,650 people at the end of last year. In activities related to information, communications and new technologies there were more than 6,300, and as many in professional, scientific and technical activities. The next most important sectors were logistics and health and social services, with close to 4,000 foreign affiliates in both, a figure similar to that of real estate activities.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Esta funcionalidad es exclusiva para registrados.
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Comentar es una ventaja exclusiva para registrados
¿Ya eres registrado?
Inicia sesiónNecesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.