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Official Spanish government list identifies professions with worker shortages, reduces barriers to hiring foreigners, and guides candidates on where to find jobs and how to access the job market in 2026.
Spain maintains, in 2026, an official mechanism that can shorten the hiring process for foreigners in areas with a proven labor shortage.
This is the Catalog of Hard-to-Fill Occupations, published quarterly by the State Public Employment Service, SEPE, with a breakdown by province, islands, and autonomous cities.
When a profession appears on this list, the employer gains the possibility to process the authorization to reside and work for a foreign worker, without facing the most difficult stage of local recruitment.
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How the catalog of occupations works in practice
In practice, this changes the burden of bureaucracy.
The catalog exists precisely to list roles whose vacancies are more difficult to fill in the Spanish market.
SEPE’s official page states that the list is quarterly and valid from the first to the last working day of the calendar quarter following its publication, which makes this document an operational reference for companies and candidates trying to enter the country’s job market.
Sectors with the greatest shortage of professionals in Spain
The catalog for the first quarter of 2026 repeats a familiar pattern, with a strong presence of occupations linked to the maritime sector in coastal areas.
The document includes, among other positions, naval refrigeration technicians, merchant ship chief engineers, naval machinists, naval mechanics, merchant ship pilots, ship pursers, and professional athletes, in addition to variations by province.
This shows that the shortage is not homogeneous and depends on the productive structure of each region.
This territorial breakdown is decisive for those seeking a job from outside Spain.
The same profession may appear in one province and not in another, which requires attention to the regional demand map.
Instead of searching generically, candidates have a better chance when they cross-reference their occupation with the province where the difficulty of coverage has been officially recognized by the Spanish government.
In addition to the catalog, the EURES network itself indicates that immigration from third countries remains necessary in Spain across different segments.
In the labor market information section of the European portal, the platform states that vacancies not filled by nationals include elderly care, truck drivers, cooks, waiters, and agricultural industry workers.
The same report notes that shortages are frequently concentrated in agriculture, construction, and hospitality activities.
Where to find jobs for foreigners in Spain
For those outside the country, the most obvious channel is the EURES network, created to facilitate labor mobility among 31 countries.
The official page for candidates states that the system brings together almost 3 million jobs and about 5 thousand registered employers, with a free service for job seekers.
The platform’s help center highlights that vacancies are updated daily and that users can filter their search by country, region, occupation, and contract type.
Nevertheless, EURES itself makes an important caveat for citizens from outside the European Union.
The portal can be freely used to search for vacancies and create a profile, but finding an opportunity on the platform does not alter national requirements regarding work and residence permits.
In other words, the website helps locate companies and selection processes, but access to the Spanish market remains subject to current migratory rules.
On the Spanish side, SEPE maintains specific pages for working in Europe and refers to both the European EURES portal and Empléate, which appears as one of the country’s public job offer portals.
This official ecosystem is useful because it combines job vacancies, practical information about living and working in Spain, and institutional guidance, which is especially relevant for those who need to align their application, visa, and documentation.
Migration rules: what changes according to the profile
For citizens of the European Union, the process follows the logic of free movement.
The Spanish administration informs that for stays shorter than three months, there is no prior registration requirement; it is sufficient to carry a valid passport or identity document.
If the stay exceeds this period, the application for registration as a resident must be submitted within three months of entering Spain, with immediate issuance of the corresponding certificate.
This means that Europeans do not need prior work authorization like third-country nationals.
In practice, the focus shifts to documentary formalization after arrival, especially for residency, tax identification, and integration into the Spanish administrative system.
This scenario explains why, for this group, all major job portals can be used without the additional barrier of migratory sponsorship.
There is also a distinct path for those who already hold long-term EU residence issued by another Member State.
The information sheets of the Spanish migratory system maintain a specific procedure for the residence in Spain of long-term EU residents from another Union country.
For Brazilians and other non-EU nationals without this status, the central point remains the job offer.
In these cases, the Spanish company needs to initiate the corresponding process, and the hard-to-fill occupations catalog can reduce obstacles precisely because it already recognizes, in advance, the local scarcity of professionals in certain occupations and geographical areas.
Therefore, the combination of a concrete vacancy, the correct province, and an occupation listed in the catalog tends to be more efficient than a broad and disorganized application.
New regulation and foreseen changes for foreigners
The reform of the foreigners’ regulation approved by the Spanish government now provides for a job-seeking visa with a duration of up to 12 months.
The official material released by the Ministry of Inclusion highlights this expansion and presents the instrument as one of the novelties of the new migratory framework, aimed at facilitating integration through work, training, and family ties.
Even with this normative provision, the practical utility of this path still depends on the effective regulation of each modality.
Therefore, for those seeking employment from abroad, the most solid route remains the traditional one: locating real vacancies, prioritizing sectors with labor shortages, adapting the resume and professional profile to the Spanish market, and monitoring public channels where the company already has clarity on international hiring.
Another point that continues to attract the attention of Brazilians is nationality by residence.
The Spanish administration informs that the general period is ten years, but it drops to two years for nationals of Ibero-American countries, in addition to other groups provided for by law.
This does not interfere with the entry process for work, but it helps explain why Spain remains on the radar of those seeking a medium-term strategy for residence and definitive integration.
In the current scenario, the most realistic interpretation is straightforward: Spain officially recognizes that it needs foreign workers in parts of the market, publishes a quarterly list that reduces barriers in specific occupations, and offers, through SEPE and the EURES network, the most reliable channels to transform this need into formal hiring.
For those intending to compete for a vacancy, the most significant detail is not just the profession, but the combination of occupation, province, type of authorization, and migratory profile at the time of application.
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