Human Capital Notes
The foreign population in Spain. Gender differences
Abstract
The origin of foreigners in Spain, their educational level and their presence in the labor market varies from men to women, as shown in this issue. For example, there are more female foreign students with post-compulsory education than male foreign students, because men more often quit their studies after completing compulsory schooling. On the other hand, unemployment is usually more intense among foreign women than among men, but due to the impact of the crisis in the construction sector, unemployment rates for both genders are now very similar.This note also shows the striking differences by gender in the distribution of employed by industry. While a fifth of the employed foreign women work in the hotel industry and a third in domestic services, the majority of foreign men work in construction, industry or agriculture. Regarding domestic services, 55% of the Spanish Social Security affiliates as household employees are foreign women, and it is estimated that between one third and a half of household workers are in irregular situation.