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| Britain | |
| 9 in 10 new UK jobs go to foreigners | |
| 2008-03-04 | |
Almost nine in 10 new jobs created over the past decade have been taken by foreign-born workers despite a sharp increase in the number of skilled British workers, official figures show.
Since 1997, some 1.4 million fewer Britons work in manufacturing, yet 113,000 more foreign-born workers are in the sector. Of the 1.7 million more people in employment since 1997, 1.5 million were born outside the UK, according to the Office for National Statistics. The figures have been uncovered by a former Labour minister who is urging the Government to urgently restrict immigration from eastern Europe to help young Britons gain employment. Frank Field, the former welfare minister, said that since 1997 the number of skilled Britons in the workplace - those with a National Vocational Qualification at level two as a minimum - had increased by 2.8 million. However, there had been only a 310,000 net increase in the number of Britons in work in that time - and the number had actually dropped since 2003 after mass immigration from eastern Europe. Mr Field said yesterday: "What the Government needs to do is face up to the fact that we need to restrict the movement of labour from eastern Europe. "We had the ability to do that, but now we would need to ask the European Commission for permission. And the Government seems unwilling to do that." Controversy over the employment of foreign-born workers has increased since Mr Brown pledged to create "British jobs for British workers" last summer. After initially publishing incorrect data last autumn, the Government was forced to admit that 54 per cent of new jobs had gone to foreign workers. However, the latest figures suggest the actual figure could be as high as 85 per cent. The new data shows that the number of British people in work has fallen to the lowest level in a decade, while the number of foreign-born workers employed in the UK has almost doubled. Figures from the ONS Labour Force Survey for the last quarter of 2007 show there were 27.5 million people in jobs in Britain. This figure includes 3.4 million foreign-born workers, including 2.3 million from outside the EU. The 1.1 million from inside the EU has risen from 544,000 in 1997. | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #2 I'm sorry, but it's the tax and benefit structure that cause this. For the vast majority, working migrants are a blessing. The problem is the UKs large lumpenprole population who are addicted to others money. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2008-03-04 14:27 |
| #1 Mr Field said yesterday: "What the Government needs to do is face up to the fact that we need to restrict the movement of labour from eastern Europe. "We had the ability to do that, but now we would need to ask the European Commission for permission. And the Government seems unwilling to do that." No different here. Both parties give a rat's ass about the managing labor supply. Oh, they'll worry about the Fed and capital markets, tax welfare for absentee farm owners in Manhattan and other businesses, and employment welfare in the form of grants to colleges and universities, but the average American worker will only get redress by being treated as a 'victim' [of government meddling in the market more often by refusing to enforce its existing laws] rather than an 'asset' [other than on election day]. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-03-04 09:56 |