UK and non-UK people in the labour market: May 2019

• There were an estimated 28.94 million UK nationals working in the UK, 190,000 more than for a year earlier.

• There were an estimated 2.38 million EU nationals working in the UK, 98,000 more than for a year earlier.

• There were an estimated 1.32 million non-EU nationals working in the UK, 80,000 more than for a year earlier.

Employment

Employment measures the number of people aged 16 years and over in paid work. The employment rate is the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 years who are in paid work.

Since January to March 2009, the number of non-UK nationals from outside the EU working in the UK has been broadly flat. In contrast, the number of non-UK nationals from the EU working in the UK has generally increased, reflecting the admission of Poland and other East European countries to the EU in 2004.

Looking at employment by nationality, between January to March 2018 and January to March 2019, the estimated number of:

• UK nationals working in the UK increased by 190,000 to 28.94 million

• non-UK nationals from the EU working in the UK increased by 98,000 to 2.38 million

• non-UK nationals from outside the EU working in the UK increased by 80,000 to 1.32 million

Looking now at how the figures have changed since the EU referendum (which took place on 23 June 2016), between January to March 2016 and January to March 2019:

• UK nationals working in the UK increased by 779,000 to 28.94 million

• non-UK nationals from the EU working in the UK increased by 237,000 to 2.38 million

• non-UK nationals from outside the EU working in the UK increased by 130,000 to 1.32 million

As shown in Figure 2, the numbers of people working in the UK who were born in EU countries and born outside the EU have generally increased over the last 20 years. This contrasts with the figures for non-UK nationals, shown in Figure 1, as the number of non-EU nationals working in the UK has been broadly flat since 2009. This indicates that the increase in non-EU born people working in the UK has been due largely to more non-EU born workers with British nationality.

For January to March 2019, there were 5.80 million people born abroad working in the UK, but the number of non-UK nationals working in the UK was much lower at 3.70 million. This is because the estimates for people born abroad working in the UK include many UK nationals.

Looking at the employment estimates by country of birth between January to March 2018 and January to March 2019, the number of:

• UK born people working in the UK increased by 179,000 to 26.84 million

• people born in the EU working in the UK increased by 58,000 to 2.42 million

• people born outside the EU working in the UK increased by 124,000 to 3.38 million

As shown in Figure 3, the employment rate for non-UK nationals from the EU has been higher than that for UK nationals since the mid-2000s, reflecting higher employment rates (and correspondingly low economic inactivity rates) for migrants from East European countries within the EU.

The estimated employment rates for non-UK nationals from outside the EU have been consistently lower than that for UK nationals and for EU nationals, partly due to lower participation in the labour market from some population groups, for example, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals.

Unemployment

Unemployment measures people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. The unemployment rate is the proportion of all employed and unemployed people (not the proportion of the total population) who are unemployed.

As shown in Figure 4, the unemployment rate for non-UK nationals from the EU has been broadly similar to that for UK nationals but the unemployment rate for non-UK nationals from outside the EU has been consistently higher. The unemployment rates for non-UK nationals are more volatile than the rate for UK nationals due to smaller sample sizes. This is due to sampling variability issues as explained in the Strengths and limitations section of this article.

Economic inactivity

Economic inactivity measures people without a job but who are not classed as unemployed because they have not been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and/or they are unable to start work within the next two weeks. Our headline measure of economic inactivity is for those aged from 16 to 64 years.

As shown in Figure 5, the economic inactivity rate for non-UK nationals from the EU has been lower than that for UK nationals since the mid-2000s. This reflects low economic inactivity rates (and correspondingly high employment rates) among migrants from East European countries within the EU.

The economic inactivity rates for non-UK nationals from outside the EU have been consistently higher than those for UK nationals and EU nationals, partly due to lower participation in the labour market from some population groups, for example, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals.

As shown in Figure 5, the economic inactivity rates for non-UK nationals are more volatile than the rates for UK nationals due to smaller sample sizes, although they are less volatile than the unemployment rates shown in Figure 4. This is due to sampling variability issues as explained in the Strengths and limitations section of this article.

Employment, unemployment and economic inactivity by nationality and country of birth
Dataset A12 | Released 14 May 2019
Estimates of labour market activity by nationality and country of birth sourced from the Labour Force Survey.

Employment by nationality and country of birth
Dataset EMP06 | Released 14 May 2019
Estimates of employment by nationality and country of birth sourced from the Labour Force Survey. This dataset provides a more detailed country breakdown of employment than that available at Dataset A12.

The sampling variability estimates shown at Tables 1, 2 and 3 are for 95% confidence intervals and are calculated on data that are not seasonally adjusted.

Country of birth

Country of birth refers to the country that a person was born in and cannot change. However, not all non-UK born people are foreign nationals. The numbers of non-UK born people include British citizens who were born abroad, such as children of military personnel or other British workers stationed abroad.

Economic inactivity

People not in the labour force (also known as economically inactive) are not in employment but do not meet the internationally accepted definition of unemployment because they have not been seeking work within the last four weeks and/or they are unable to start work in the next two weeks. The economic inactivity rate is the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 years who are not in the labour force.

Employment

Employment measures the number of people in paid work and differs from the number of jobs because some people have more than one job. The employment rate is the proportion of people aged from 16 to 64 years who are in paid work.

Nationality

Nationality refers to the nationality stated by the Labour Force Survey respondent when they were interviewed. Nationality can change over time; for example, some people come to the UK as non-UK nationals and later obtain British citizenship. Some non-UK nationals, such as children of overseas nationals, were born in the UK.

Unemployment

Unemployment measures people without a job who have been actively seeking work within the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. The unemployment rate is not the proportion of the total population who are unemployed. It is the proportion of the economically active population (those in work plus those seeking and available to work) who are unemployed.

A more detailed Glossary is available.

This bulletin relies on data collected from the Labour Force Survey, the largest household survey in the UK.

The Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) report pulls together important qualitative information on the various dimensions of data quality, as well as providing a summary of the methods used to compile the output.

The Labour Force Survey performance and quality monitoring reports provide data on response rates and other quality-related issues for the Labour Force Survey.

The figures in this bulletin come from the Labour Force Survey, which gathers information from a sample of households across the UK rather than from the whole population. The sample is designed to be as accurate as possible given practical limitations such as time and cost constraints. Results from sample surveys are always estimates, not precise figures. This can have an impact on how changes in the estimates should be interpreted, especially for short-term comparisons.

As the number of people available in the sample gets smaller, the variability of the estimates that we can make from that sample size gets larger. Estimates for small groups (for example, South African nationals working in the UK), which are based on quite small subsets of the Labour Force Survey sample, are less reliable and tend to be more volatile than for larger aggregated groups (for example, the total number of non-UK nationals in employment).

In general, changes in the numbers (and especially the rates) reported in this bulletin between three-month periods are small, and are not usually greater than the level that can be explained by sampling variability. Short- term movements in reported rates should be considered alongside longer-term patterns in the series and corresponding movements in other sources to give a fuller picture.

These statistics do not measure stocks or flows of recent migrants to the UK, because they include people resident in the UK for many years (many of whom will now be UK nationals) as well as more recent arrivals. This, along with a range of other factors, means that net changes in the number of non-UK workers in the UK cannot be directly compared with long-term net migration for non-UK nationals. Estimates of migration are published separately in the Migration Statistics quarterly report.

The employment estimates in this bulletin do not relate to “new jobs” and cannot be used to estimate the proportion of new jobs that have been filled by UK and non-UK workers. This is because changes in the employment series show net changes in the number of people in work (the number of people entering employment minus the number of people leaving employment). The number of people entering or leaving employment is much larger than the net changes. Also, the estimates of the number of people in work differ from the number of jobs because some people have more than one job.

Employment in the UK
Article | Released 14 May 2019
Estimates of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity for the UK

Migration statistics quarterly report
Article | Released 28 February 2019
A summary of the latest long-term international migration statistics for the UK

Population of the UK by country of birth and nationality
Article | Released 29 November 2018
Latest population estimates for the UK by country of birth and nationality, from the Annual Population Survey

Labour market economic commentary
Article | Released 14 May 2019
Additional economic analysis of the latest UK labour market headline statistics and long-term trends