“In 2014, the average number of foreign workers was 55.6 thousand, having increased to 495.2 thousand in 2023, which represented 2.1% and 13.4% of the total number of employees in each one of these years”, concluded the BdP, in a study that seeks to characterise individuals of foreign nationality who reside in Portugal and who have an employment contract registered in the Social Security database.

The average number of foreign workers registered with Social Security and working for others registered a significant increase in 2018 and 2019 (38.5% and 47.9%, respectively), having been more moderate in the years of the covid pandemic.

“In the last two years, it has increased again with growth rates of 41% in 2022 and 35.5% in 2023”, highlighted the BdP.

Brazilians stood out, with 209.4 thousand workers registered with Social Security on average in 2023, which is equivalent to 42.3% of workers with foreign nationality registered in the database that year.

The BdP highlighted that, in 2022 and 2023, the number of employees with Brazilian nationality recorded growth rates of 58.5% and 43%, respectively.

The next four nationalities with the highest number of registered employees are Indian (41 thousand), Nepalese (26.9 thousand), Cape Verdean (22.7 thousand), and Bengali (18.8 thousand), which, as a whole, they represented 22.1% of the total number of employees with foreign nationality in 2023.

The number of employees with Indian nationality grew by 28.1% and 42.4% in 2022 and 2023, while those with Nepali nationality grew by 39.9% and 45.6%, respectively.

European workers represented 12.6% of foreigners and registered a more moderate increase in recent years.

In 2023, 22.2% of companies had workers with foreign nationality, which compares to 7% in 2014.

In terms of age, the median for foreign workers was 33 years old in 2023, which compares to 42 years old for workers with Portuguese nationality.

As for the weight of women among workers with foreign nationality, in 2023, they represented 36.7% of the total, but with notable differences between nationalities: while among workers with Brazilian and Cape Verdean nationalities, the weight of women was greater than 40%, in the case of workers from India and Bangladesh it was only 7.5% and 2.6%.

Like the Portuguese, foreign workers reside and work mainly in companies based on the coast, particularly in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, coastal Alentejo and Algarve, and have greater weight in several municipalities with significant agricultural activity, especially in the southern region of the country.

According to this analysis, in the agriculture and fishing sector, four out of every ten employees had foreign nationality, which compares with one and two out of every 10 in 2014 and 2019, respectively.

“The weight of foreign employment in total employment is also very important in the accommodation and catering, administrative activities and construction sectors, with percentages of 31.1%, 28.1% and 23.2% in 2023, respectively”, concluded the BdP.

Regarding remuneration, the median monthly remuneration of foreign workers in 2023 was very close to the national minimum wage (760 euros), standing at 769 euros for young workers and 781 euros for workers over 35 years old, while for national workers, the median salaries were 902 and 945 euros, respectively.

The BdP highlighted that the particularly high influx of new foreign workers in Portugal in the years 2022 and 2023 brought the country closer to the existing situation in the European Union, with regard to the weight of employment of foreign nationality in the total number of jobs.