The Balearic Islands are, by far, the autonomous community with the highest proportion of international workers relative to the total number of people affiliated with Social Security. In July, the islands recorded an average of 182,569 workers with non-Spanish passports, which is equivalent to 26.3 percent of the total registered workers (which stood at 694,038). In other words, one in every four workers in the archipelago is foreign.
It is no surprise that the Islands lead this field: the proportion has continued to increase in recent years and, in fact, the series of employment records since the start of the pandemic cannot be understood without taking into account the contribution of foreign workers. International labor already accounted for one-fifth of the total in mid-2022, when the economy was beginning to recover and the aftereffects of Covid were becoming a distant memory. The hiring rate for foreign workers has since risen to historic levels, tripling the increase in domestic hiring ahead of 2025, to give just one example.
The central government’s extraordinary regularization process has given a final push to a trend that was, in any case, already unstoppable, given the growing demand for labor from a business sector in full expansion. The economic growth of the Balearic Islands has been reflected, among other indicators, in a labor market that has been recording record employment figures for almost five years.
Meanwhile, in Spain, the average proportion has not reached one-sixth of the total. In July, the number of foreign workers was 3.5 million, which represents 15.6 percent of the country’s total Social Security contributors. No other region has a foreign workforce that represents up to 20 percent. The Balearic Islands are followed by Catalonia (19.8 percent) and Aragon (19.6 percent), while at the other end of the scale is Extremadura with 5.7 percent.
Hospitality, construction and retail
The hospitality sector accounts for the majority of foreign workers in the Balearic Islands: almost 40 percent. More than 70,000 members, including both salaried workers and the self-employed, are part of this group in a region where the tourism industry continues to be more important than in any other Spanish region, with the exception of the Canary Islands. Next are construction, with about 25,000 workers, and retail, with 19,000.
As for nationalities, Italians represent the highest number of registrations: 23,554. However, there is a catch to this figure, as a key factor behind this advantage is the fact that a large portion of the Argentine workforce living in the Balearic Islands holds Italian passports. Within the European Union, they are followed by Germans (13,289) and Romanians (8,341). As for the rest of the world, Colombians and Moroccans top the list, with just over 18,000 members from each of these countries.
Moroccans are also the most entrepreneurial group from outside the European Union, along with the British and the Chinese. These nationalities have the highest number of self-employed people, both in proportional and absolute terms, which statistically supports the common perception that they constitute a segment of the immigrant population more inclined to create their own businesses.
Lower salaries
On the other hand, the growth of the foreign workforce is accompanied by a clear lag in the trend of its wage levels. The Balearic Islands are setting records for international social security registrations, although with a significantly lower average contribution base. In other words, the foreign workforce is growing faster than ever, but its wages are lower. The latest statistics from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration on contribution bases, covering the January to March quarter of this year—and which are not broken down by autonomous community—show an average of 2,224 euros for Spanish workers and 1,886 euros for foreign workers. In other words, the latter earn 15 percent less than the former.
Although this is a significant gap, it should be noted that the difference has narrowed by five percentage points compared to the 20 percent figure recorded exactly three years ago. This wage distribution supports the arguments of those who point out that the majority of foreign workers perform jobs that local workers refuse to do due to their arduous nature or low pay.
Aside from these considerations, the Balearic Government has expressed its concern about the negative effects that the extraordinary regularization process could have on the labor market and on the services offered by the SOIB (Balearic Islands Employment Service). Regional Employment Councilor Catalina Cabrer stated during the presentation of the latest unemployment figures that, since the beginning of this process, 587 foreign citizens have registered as job seekers with the RE (extraordinary regularization) code. In this regard, 224 registered last month, while 363 people added in July, bringing the total to the aforementioned figure.
This is a matter of great concern for us because the number of people involved in this regularization process has gone from 224 last month to 587. We’re talking about an increase of 363 people in one month. We are concerned that this could overwhelm the SOIB’s services because nine out of ten of these people are unemployed and 90 percent have only completed primary education,” warns Cabrer.