Reflecting broader labor trends across Europe and the Western world, Spain is increasingly a country where native-born young people, facing limited job opportunities, often choose to emigrate, while foreigners—primarily from Asia and the Global South—continue to occupy a growing share of positions.
The numbers paint a stark picture: from 2019 to 2024, a staggering 71.4% of newly created jobs went to foreign workers, according to a study by the Foundation for Applied Economic Studies (Fedea).
Jesús Vega, former HR director at the Spanish multinational clothing company Inditex and Banco Santander, a multinational financial service company, expressed deep concern over this trend in a recent interview with El Debate.
“We are importing waiters and bricklayers while exporting doctors and engineers,” Vega lamented. “It’s a tragedy because we have spent a fortune training them, and they represent the great talent on which the country and the concentration of high-value-added companies depend.”
Spain’s neoliberal labor policies, he argued, are effectively pushing out the well-paying jobs that could truly benefit the economy.
Currently, foreign workers comprise 20.7% of Spain’s labor force, with a strong presence in sectors such as hospitality, construction, and low-skilled labor. In recent years, some have also moved into technical fields. This trend largely reflects the lower average education levels of many incoming migrants compared to native Spaniards.
Over the past five years, Spain’s workforce expanded by nearly two million, accompanied by a decline in unemployment of 438,000. However, 74.7% of newly created jobs went to workers over 50, while those aged 30 to 44 saw a net loss of 634,000 jobs. In contrast, the 45-to-49 age group experienced only a modest increase of 70,000 positions.
Spain’s long-standing struggle with youth unemployment is worsening. In just five years, the proportion of workers over 50 jumped five percentage points to 35%. The study suggests that while foreign and older workers are taking more jobs, many younger Spaniards are opting out of the labor force entirely—or simply leaving the country.
Data from Spain’s National Institute of Statistics (INE) supports this notion, revealing that in the first half of 2022 alone, 220,443 people emigrated—the highest number since 2013, when Spain’s financial crisis sent unemployment soaring to 25%. The biggest group to leave? Those aged 25 to 39.
“We are importing waiters and bricklayers while exporting doctors and engineers. This is a tragedy because we’ve invested a fortune in training them, and they represent the talent on which the country’s growth and the success of high-value companies depend,” Vega pointed out.
Unfortunately, these shifts aren’t unique to Spain. Across the Western world, a flood of low-skilled migration is reshaping labor markets, driving wages down, and pushing housing costs sky-high—making homeownership an impossible dream for many young natives.
In both the United States and Canada, housing prices have steadily risen, while workers’ take-home pay has remained stagnant. In January 2025, the median home sale price in the U.S. rose to $396,900, marking a 4.8% increase compared to the previous year. This represents the 19th consecutive month of year-over-year price increases.
Meanwhile, millions of jobs have shifted to foreign workers, often to the detriment of native-born citizens. Further complicating the situation are corporate DEI initiatives, with many companies increasingly prioritizing ‘diversity’ over hiring White males.
For large corporations, mass immigration is a win-win: lower wages, increased competition for jobs, and a fractured workforce that makes asserting workers’ interests difficult due to cultural, religious, and linguistic divides.
For young, homegrown workers across the Western world, the future looks increasingly bleak.
The post Spain: Over 71% of New Jobs in the Last 5 Years Went to Foreigners as Young Spaniards Emigrate at Alarming Rates appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.