Spain's workforce crisis: Over 70% of new jobs go to foreign workers as young Spaniards flee abroad, study reveals

By lauraharris // 2025-03-25

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Over 70 percent of jobs created in Spain between 2019 and 2024 have gone to foreign workers, who now make up 20.7 percent of the workforce, primarily in low-skill sectors like construction and hospitality. Meanwhile, young Spaniards face rising unemployment and emigration.
Highly skilled Spanish professionals, including doctors and engineers, are leaving the country for better opportunities abroad, while low-skilled foreign workers fill labor gaps, raising concerns about Spain's long-term economic growth.
The Spanish workforce is aging, with workers over 50 increasing by five percentage points, while younger Spaniards (30-44) lost 634,000 jobs. Youth unemployment remains a critical issue, with many young people leaving the labor force or emigrating.
In 2022, 220,443 people left Spain, the highest number since 2013, with the majority aged 25-39. This demographic represents the future workforce, exacerbating concerns about Spain's economic and demographic stability.
Similar patterns are emerging in other Western nations, where low-skilled migrant labor is driving down wages and increasing housing costs, disadvantaging native-born workers. In the U.S., foreign-born workers have gained millions of jobs while native-born employment has stagnated or declined.

A recent Foundation for Applied Economic Studies (Fedea) study has revealed that over 70 percent of jobs created between 2019 and 2024 have gone to foreign workers, while young Spaniards are increasingly pushed out of the workforce or leaving the country altogether. According to the study, foreigners now account for 20.7 percent of all workers in Spain, with the majority employed in low-skill sectors such as construction, hospitality and elementary occupations. Meanwhile, highly skilled Spanish professionals, including doctors and engineers, are leaving the country in search of better opportunities abroad. Moreover, the number of workers over the age of 50 has increased by five percentage points in the last five years, younger Spaniards who are struggling to find stable employment, now accounting for 35 percent of the workforce. In the 30 to 44 age group, 634,000 jobs were lost over the same period. Meanwhile, workers aged 45 to 49 saw only a modest increase of 70,000 jobs. Meaning, youth unemployment, a long-standing issue in Spain, has worsened in recent years. Many young Spaniards are either dropping out of the labor force entirely or emigrating to other countries in search of better prospects. Migration outflow data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INE) shows that 220,443 people left Spain in the first half of 2022, the highest figure since 2013, during the peak of the country's financial crisis. (Related: Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz wants to legalize residency status of 500K illegals.) The majority of those leaving were aged 25 to 39, a demographic that represents the future of Spain's workforce. "We are importing waiters and bricklayers while exporting doctors and engineers, which is a tragedy because we have spent a fortune training them and they represent the great talent on which the country’s growth and the concentration of high-value-added companies depend," said Jesús Vega, former Director of Human Resources at Inditex and Banco Santander, in an interview with El Debate. Furthermore, Vega that the labor policies of Spain "are driving away those salaries that truly contribute to the country."

Influx of low-skilled migrants emerges across Western nations

Similar patterns are emerging across Western nations, where an influx of low-skilled migrants has contributed to downward pressure on wages. In many instances, this surge in foreign workers has also fueled rising housing costs, making it increasingly difficult for native-born young people to afford homes. In countries such as the U.S. and Canada, this trend has been particularly pronounced, with millions of jobs shifting to foreign workers, often at the expense of native-born citizens. The BLS reported that in January, over a million, or 1,045,000 to be precise, foreign-born workers found a job (and as Standard Chartered explained last June, this is largely illegal or "undocumented" aliens) compared to only 8,000 native-born workers. This means that while the number of record foreign-born (largely illegal alien) workers, at 31.774 million has increased for another month, the number of native-born workers remains unchanged over the past six years, still below levels last hit in 2019, just before the COVID crisis. "This also means that since July 2018, the U.S. labor force has added 4.6 million foreign-born workers, while the number of native-born workers has declined by nearly 700K," Tyler Durden wrote for ZeroHedge in February. Additionally, corporate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have been criticized for disproportionately disadvantaging White males, further intensifying these dynamics. Watch this video when hundreds were arrested in Europe after foreigners lash out on New Year's Eve. This video is from the TNTVNEWS channel on Brighteon.com.

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Influx of low-skilled migrants emerges across Western nations

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