Expats lead the way

LATEST data shows that it is foreign residents who are leading the way into recovery in the Balearic Islands.
The number of foreign residents registered in the Social Security lists in the Islands reached 82,681 people in May, which represents a 19.84 per cent increase if compared with the previous month, with 13,688 more members.
With these figures, the Balearic Islands have marked the largest growth in the whole of Spain, according to the Employment Ministry.
Year-on-year data shows an increase of 6.15 per cent, a total of 4,788 more foreign contributors than the same month of 2014, which also places the region in the leading position in terms of growth.
Out of the total registered foreigners, 44,617 come from different countries within the European Union and the rest, 38,063, come from outside the borders of the EU.
Foreigners have also led the increase in terms of self-employment in May, with 1,324 new people registered as such, which translates to an 8.3 per cent increase. As much as 44 per cent of the self-employment growth registered last year is accredited to foreigners, which totals 17,238.
“The results of the five first months of the year are highly positive as almost half of the self-employment increase has been brought by foreign people, becoming a key community for self-employment in the Balearic Islands,” said head of the Self-Employment and Entrepreneurs Associations Union, Jeronimo Valcaneras. He continued: “This growth is accredited in part to the difficulty that foreigners encounter when accessing the market labour and, in many cases, they follow the path of entrepreneurship without any government aid, training or resources.”