Shock figures: 3.8 million jobs go to migrants
More than one in seven jobs in Britain is being filled by a foreign-born worker.
A total of 3.8million people born overseas are working in the UK, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics.
The figure is equivalent to 13 per cent of the workforce.
The overwhelming majority of the workers – more than 2.6 million of them – are from outside the European Union.
Overall, the proportion of overseas workers in the UK workforce has almost doubled over the past 10 years.
The shocking figures, released to the Conservatives at Westminster yesterday, are being seen as the final death knell for Gordon Brown’s much-derided promise of “British jobs for British workers”.
Last night there were growing concerns about further damage to community relation as the unemployment rate soared over two million in the recession.
Demonstrations and wildcat strikes protesting at overseas workers allegedly getting preferential job opportunities in a series of major construction projects have swept Britain in recent weeks.
Shadow Work and Pensions Minister James Clappison, who obtained the figures, said: “This is yet more evidence that Labour has failed to bring migration from outside the EU under control despite repeated promises to do so.
Yet more evidence that Labour has failed to bring migration from outside the EU under control.
He accused ministers of trying to bully statisticians in a bid to cover up the Government’s blunders over immigration.
Figures showed that in 1997 there were slightly more than two million foreign-born workers in the UK, equivalent to 5.3 per cent of the total workforce.
But the Office for National Statistics’ Labour Force Survey figures showed the number of newcomers settling into British jobs has rocketed to 3.8million with 1.17million of them coming from the European Union and a further 2.6million from outside.
Separate analysis by the think-tank Migrationwatch yesterday showed that there were up to four times the number of EU workers employed in the UK compared to British-born workers employed in the EU.
Migrationwatch chairman Sir Andrew Green said: “There is no clear sign yet in these statistics that workers from Eastern Europe are starting to go home in significant numbers. Our long-held view is that economic migrants from the EU are not likely to become a long-term immigration problem as their numbers are expected to come into balance in a few years’ time.
“The big issue remains the very large numbers coming to the UK from outside the EU – again confirmed by the latest figures – when the pressure on jobs here is as intense as it has been for many years.”
News of the number of jobs taken by immigrants comes a day after it emerged that the state of Britain’s economy is so desperate that 600 people applied for a single vacancy for a £22,762-a-year post as an emergency call telephone operator for Leicestershire Police.
Chief Supt Geoff Feavyour said: “Do I think this is credit crunch related? Yes, absolutely. People who are out of work want a job and the police are seen as a relatively safe option compared with private industries. We’re advertising less but getting many more applications.”
Tory frontbencher Theresa May, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “This is a shocking indication of the state of the jobs market. Every day it becomes increasingly clear that Labour just isn’t working.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “More than 90 per cent of people working in this country are UK citizens and we are stepping up the help they need to get back to work.
“But if we close our borders we all become poorer. Many migrants only stay for a short period then go home again. We’ve always said that we would run our immigration system for the benefit of the UK.
“We have brought in the Australian-style points-based system to control the numbers and put restrictions on workers from Romania and Bulgaria.
“We are using the system’s flexibility to force employers to offer British jobs through JobCentreplus before recruiting foreign workers.”
