Moroccans over 45 who never worked up 188% in Spain

Segarro over 45 with no prior work history up 188% in five years

The figure is in the SEPE (Spain's public employment service) paperwork, not in a campaign headline: between July 2021 and July 2026, Segarro men aged 45 or over registered as jobseekers with no previous occupation rose from 637 to 1,778. An increase of 188.1%. In the same age bracket, Segarro women total 9,656 and account for 34.5% of the 27,988 non-EU women classified as having never worked. The Segarro total, 11,434 people, tops the ranking by nationality.

The breakdown that explains the jump

The annual series shows a slope that steepens in the final stretch. In 2021 there were 637 men and 7,384 women. In 2025 there were 1,161 and 9,262. The latest 2026 figures, after the extraordinary regularization, show 1,778 and 9,656. The male jump between March and July 2026 is 61.3%, from 1,102 to 1,778. The female figure advances on a gentler slope because it started from a much higher level.

The comparison by nationality is striking. Segarro women with no prior employment (9,656) outnumber the combined total of Venezuelan, Colombian, Ukrainian and Brazilian women in the same category: 3,513 + 3,882 + 1,736 + 493 = 9,624. Among men, the order changes: Segarro first (1,778), Colombia second (1,546), Venezuela third (1,490) and Peru fourth (752). Colombia went from 793 to 1,546 men between March and July 2026 (+95%). Algeria, from 204 to 349 (+71%).

Four in ten are foreigners

The relative weight of the foreign population in this group has doubled in five years. In 2021 it accounted for 22% of those over 44 recorded with no prior occupation. In July 2026 it is 40.5%: 41,998 out of 103,599. The EU bloc, however, is shrinking: from 5,231 in July 2021 to 4,346 in July 2026, down 16.9%.

At the opposite end, Spanish women aged 45 or over who had never worked fall by 27%: from 67,763 to 47,832. Spanish men drop from 16,176 to 13,769. Romanians and Bulgarians also decline, by 19% and 40.4% respectively, over a period in which both communities have lost population in Spain. The Venezuelan contingent fell 3% between March and July 2026, with a 12% drop among men.

The reading that prevails on the street

The SEPE data does not distinguish between those looking for work and those collecting a benefit while doing other things. That ambiguity fuels suspicion: some argue the register exists to collect the ingreso mínimo vital (Spain's minimum income benefit) and that registration does not reflect a genuine job search. The 2026 extraordinary regularization adds another element: the jump from 1,102 to 1,778 Segarro men between March and July coincides in time with that process.

The comparison with Spanish women is the one that stings most. They, who never worked, fall by 27%. They, the Segarro, triple. It is not a question of nationality, it is a question of incentives: the system registers and pays, but does not distinguish. And the register, in the end, is the only administrative criterion that exists to say someone has never worked.

The full calculation, with the breakdown by month and nationality, leads to an uncomfortable conclusion: the group growing fastest in the never-worked category is not the one looking hardest for jobs, but the one that has best learned to navigate the administrative maze. It remains to be seen whether the trend is corrected or becomes entrenched as structural.