The Spanish government said yesterday the number of immigrants in the country plummeted in 2009 due to the economic slowdown, marking "the end of a long cycle" of high numbers.

"We are seeing a transition towards a new period that will be characterised by a slower rate of arrivals who are more qualified," Consuelo Rumi, the secretary of state for immigration said, following the publication of its 2009 immigration directory.

"It is the end of a long cycle," she said.

Spain received about 10,000 legal immigrants last year compared to 136,000 in 2008 and 178,000 in 2007, Ms Rumi said.

Another 7,000 illegal immigrants arrived in 2009, half the 14,000 that came in 2008 and down from the record 31,600 which arrived on Spain's Canary Islands alone in 2006 when jobs on the country's then-booming construction sites were plentiful.

The drop in the number of new arrivals comes as Spain has seen a sharp rise in unemployment, especially among immigrants, as the global credit crunch worsened a correction underway in its key property sector.

The country's unemployment rate has more than doubled from 8.0 per cent in mid-2008 to around 18 per cent currently, one of the highest rates in Europe, according to government statistics.

By comparison the unemployment rate among Spain's army of foreign workers who care for its elderly, build its houses and serve at its tables rose from 11 per cent to 27.5 per cent.

The immigrant jobless rate rose sharply because foreigners continued to enter the Spanish workforce in 2008 at the same rate as during Spain's boom years even though the economy had soured, said applied economics professor Josep Oliver from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

He estimates that the number of immigrants who joined Spain's workforce dropped to 80,000 in 2009 from 480,000 in the previous year.

"The immigrant unemployment rate will stabilise itself over the coming quarters," said Oliver.

The number of immigrants in Spain rocketed from around 500,000 in 1996 to 5.5 million, or about 12 per cent, of the country's total population of 46 million people, with most coming from Latin America, Morocco and Eastern Europe.