Foreigners account for 13.4% of Portugal’s workforce
Foreign employees in Portugal increased by 35.5% in 2023 to 495,200, representing 13.4% of the total number of employees, according to a study by the Bank of Portugal
“In 2014, the average number of foreign workers was 55,600, rising to 495,200 in 2023, representing 2.1% and 13.4% of the total number of employees in each of these years,” the BdP says in the study, which focuses on foreigners who reside in Portugal and have an employment contract registered in the Social Security database.
The average number of foreign workers registered with Social Security and working as employees saw a significant increase in 2018 and 2019 (38.5% and 47.9%, respectively), having been less significant in the years of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“In the last two years, it has increased again, with growth rates of 41% in 2022 and 35.5% in 2023,” says the BdP.
Brazilian employees stand out, with 209,400 workers registered with social security on average in 2023, accounting for 42.3% of all foreign workers in Portugal.
The number of Brazilians working in Portugal increased significantly in 2022 and 2023, the BdP stresses, with registered growth rates of 58.5% and 43%, respectively.
The next four nationalities with the highest number of registered employees are Indian (41,000), Nepalese (26,900), Cape Verdean (22,700) and Bangladeshi (18,800), which together accounted for 22.1% of the total number of foreign employees in 2023.
The number of Indian employees grew by 28.1% and 42.4% in 2022 and 2023, while Nepalese workers grew by 39.9% and 45.6%, respectively.
European workers, on the other hand, represented 12.6% of foreigners and have seen a more moderate increase in recent years.
Meanwhile, the number of companies with at least one foreign employee has increased from 7% in 2013 to 22.2% in 2023.
The average age of foreign workers was 33 in 2023, compared to 42 for workers with Portuguese nationality.
Women account for 36.7% of foreign employees in Portugal, although the percentage changes noticeably between nationalities: while women account for 40% of Brazilian and Cape Verdean workers, they only represent 7.5% and 2.6% of Indian and Bangladeshi workers.
Like their Portuguese counterparts, foreign workers mostly live and work in companies based along the coast, particularly in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto, coastal Alentejo and the Algarve, and work most commonly in districts with “significant agricultural activity, especially in the south of the country.”
As for pay, the average monthly pay for foreign workers in 2023 was very close to the national minimum wage (€760), standing at €769 for young workers and €781 for workers over 35, while for national workers, the average wage was €902 and €945, respectively.
The BdP emphasised that the particularly high influx of new foreign workers into Portugal in 2022 and 2023 has brought the country closer to the situation in the European Union, in terms of the proportion of foreigners in the national workforces.
Source: LUSA
