How many foreign workers are there in the UK?
Updated on 30 January 2009
Strikes have broken out across the UK in support of a mass walkout by energy workers in Lincolnshire angry at the use of foreign workers.
The action has prompted renewed calls from some for Gordon Brown to stand by his "British jobs for British workers" pledge.
But just how many foreign workers are in jobs in the UK, and is it one-way traffic? Channel 4 News online looks at some of the migrant labour numbers.
At the last count a total of 3.7m foreign workers - termed as non-UK born employees - had jobs in Britain. This total had grown by about 1.4m in the past ten years, according to official estimates.
This meant that last year more than one in ten jobs in the UK (12.5 per cent) were filled by someone from overseas.
At the last count a total of 3.7m foreign workers had jobs in Britain. This total had grown by about 1.4m in the past ten years, according to official estimates.
Of this total, a notional group termed "EU14" by the government, which includes people from: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain and Sweden made up the largest number, with 700,000 working in the UK.
However, while this increase is significant it is worth noting in the broader context of the growth of the British economy as whole in the past decade. In the past 10 years the number of UK born workers in jobs grew by 500,000 - from 0.3m to 0.8m.
While migration will doubtless be affected by the gathering economic gloom - and the weakness of the pound - most recent Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures published in November last year, showed that the number of non-Brits employed in the UK was still on the rise in the past 12 months, with a rise of 175,000.
Interestingly, despite Polish people (96,000) being the most popular nation for arrivals into the UK in 2007, the largest increases as a percentage of employment were from South Africa, 18 per cent (26,000). The largest reduction as a percentage of employment levels was those born in United States, 17 per cent (16,000).
In terms of average earnings, British workers are not the best paid in the UK, according to government figures.
Median earnings have risen for Brits from £300 in 1998, to £436 in 2008. For the category known as EU14, detailed above, it rose from £290 to £510 in the past decade. Interestingly, employees born in the USA and Austrialia and New Zealand had the highest earnings at £635 and £577 respectively at the last count.
But it is by no means one way traffic into the UK. Latest emigration figures show that 340,000 Brits left in 2007, with 400,000 quitting the country in 2006.
This compares to 577,000 people moving to the UK in 2007, and 591,000 in 2006. It meant net migration was just 237,000 in 2007. Australia and Spain were the most common destinations for departing Brits. While the UK government does not hold precise figures for how many moved to work abroad, it is safe to assume large numbers did.
Note: These figures are based on government estimates related to the Labour Force Survey. They are estimates, and cannot be seen as an entirely accurate assessment of precise numbers.
