One in five unemployed is a migrant

Government reveals new statistics as unemployment hits lowest level since 1975 despite Brexit exodus fears

One in five unemployed people in the UK is a migrant, official figures have revealed for the first time. The Office for National Statistics figures show that 317,000 migrants are unemployed, including 98,000 who were born in the EU and 219,000 born outside the bloc.

JUST over a fifth of unemployed workers in the UK were born overseas, official figures have revealed for the first time.

The Office for National Statistics has for the first time published data showing unemployment by country of birth, finding that there are 98,000 Eu-born job seekers are in the UK, accounting for just below 7pc of Britain’s jobless.

A further 219,000 unemployed migrants have moved to Britain from other countries, meaning that overall around one-fifth of the pool of unemployed workers in the UK are foreign-born.

As a proportion of the total, 4pc of EU migrants are unemployed while 6.2pc of non-eu migrants are seeking work. For the UK as a whole the unemployment rate fell to 4.4pc in June, the lowest rate since 1975.

The official figures also show that Britian is still attracting more EU workers as fears of a Brexit exodus have not come to pass, with eastern Europeans in particular coming to work in the UK.

There were a record 2.37m workers employed in Britain who are nationals of other EU countries in the three months to June, a rise of 126,000 on the year.

Employment hit a new record high of 32.07m thanks to an increase of 125,000 people in work over the threemonth period, and a rise of 338,000 in employment over the past year.

Pay growth could start to pick up pace as unemployment dropped to a new record low, potentially pushing employers to offer higher wages after a period of modest raises. Average earnings increased by 2.1pc in the three months to June, also beating forecasts. Over the same period prices increased by 2.6pc, indicating that wages are failing to keep pace with living costs. This picture could start to improve, however, as hints of pay growth combine with lower-than-expected inflation last month. The ONS’S single-month figures, considered less reliable than its threemonth numbers, put pay growth at 2.8pc – which would indicate pay rose faster than prices.

“The latest labour market figures provided some signs that the tightening in the labour market may be leading to a recovery in wage growth at long last,” said Ruth Gregory at Capital Economics. “Earnings growth still needs to gather more pace in order to match the rise in CPI inflation – which we expect to peak at about 3pc later this year. But at least CPI inflation is likely to fall back next year as the impact of the drop in the pound dwindles. What’s more, the tightness of the labour market should deliver further rises in nominal wage growth over the coming quarters.”

Most of the rise in jobs came from a 97,000 increase in the number of fulltime employees over the three-month period, though there was also a 37,000 increase in the number of part-time staff. The number of part-time workers who want a full-time position edged down by 3,000 over the three months to 1.03m, or 12.3pc of the total part-time workforce.