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

Other commentary from the latest labour market data can be found on the following pages:

• Labour market overview

• There were an estimated 29.21 million UK nationals working in the UK, 182,000 more than a year earlier. The level is at a record high.

• There were an estimated 2.24 million EU nationals working in the UK, 6,000 more than a year earlier.

• There were an estimated 1.35 million non-EU nationals working in the UK, 116,000 more than a year earlier. The level is at a record high.

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; however there has been a slight increase since early 2018, with the level reaching a record high of 1.35 million in July to September 2019.

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. However, the series has been broadly flat since the latter half of 2016.

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

• UK nationals working in the UK increased by 182,000 to a record high of 29.21 million

• non-UK nationals from the EU working in the UK increased by 6,000 to 2.24 million

• non-UK nationals from outside the EU working in the UK increased by 116,000 to a record high of 1.35 million

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

• UK nationals working in the UK increased by 807,000

• non-UK nationals from the EU working in the UK decreased by 21,000

• non-UK nationals from outside the EU working in the UK increased by 126,000

As shown in Figure 2, the number of people working in the UK who were born in both EU countries and outside the EU has 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 (apart from a slight pickup in the last couple of years). This indicates that the increase in non-EU-born people working in the UK has been largely because there are more non-EU-born workers with British nationality.

For July to September 2019, there were 5.77 million people born abroad working in the UK, but the number of non-UK nationals working in the UK was much lower, at 3.59 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 July to September 2018 and July to September 2019, the number of:

• UK-born people working in the UK increased by 65,000 to a record high of 27.03 million

• people born in the EU working in the UK increased by 81,000 to 2.37 million

• people born outside the EU working in the UK increased by 157,000 to a record high of 3.40 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 because of lower participation in the labour market from some population groups, for example, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals.

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 rates for UK nationals because of smaller sample sizes resulting in sampling variability issues, as explained in the Strengths and limitations section of this article.

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 because of lower participation in the labour market from some population groups, for example, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals.

Note that the economic inactivity rates for non-UK nationals are more volatile than the rates for UK nationals because of smaller sample sizes, although they are less volatile than the unemployment rates shown in Figure 4. This is a result of 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 12 November 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 12 November 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 in Dataset A12.

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, or who had a job that they were temporarily away from (for example, because they were on holiday or off sick). This differs from the number of jobs because some people have more than one job. The employment rate is the proportion of people aged between 16 and 64 years who are in employment. A more detailed explanation is available in our Guide to labour market statistics.

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 article 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 article 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 article 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 article 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
Statistical Bulletin | Updated on 12 November 2019
Estimates of employment, unemployment and economic inactivity for the UK.

Labour market economic commentary
Article | Updated on 12 November 2019
Additional economic analysis of the latest UK labour market headline statistics and long-term trends.

Migration statistics quarterly report
Statistical Bulletin | Last updated on 22 August 2019
A summary of the latest long-term international migration statistics for the UK.

Population of the UK by country of birth and nationality
Statistical Bulletin | Last updated on 24 May 2019
Latest population estimates for the UK by country of birth and nationality, from the Annual Population Survey.