80% of jobs filled by immigrants
MPs have criticised the government's "laissez-faire" approach to immigration.
Also In The News
|
Non-League Horsham Town's FA Cup dreams were shattered by a 6-2 drubbing by Swansea City in the second round replay at the Liberty Stadium. |  |
Tuesday, 11, Dec 2007 11:02
Eight out of every ten jobs created in the last decade could have been filled by foreign workers, according to a new independent analysis.
A report from the Statistics Commission has shown that government claims to provide "British jobs for British workers" may have been erroneous after a huge majority of the employment increase in the last ten years was found to have been fuelled by people born overseas.
Work and pensions secretary Peter Hain said in October that of the 2.7 million jobs created since Labour took office in 1997, 800,000 involved "those who have come from outside the country to work in Britain".
Just a week later employment minister Caroline Flint said the figure was actually 1.1 million, only for the Conservative party to release a parliamentary answer from the Office of National Statistics showing that 1.5 million foreign workers had entered the UK in the last ten years.
A review requested by Labour MP Frank Field, the former minister for welfare reform, has attributed the seeming inaccuracies to "confusion over the most appropriate figures to use in public debate".
The Statistics Commission report continued: "Using the best available population estimates, the number of people in employment increased between 1997 and 2007 by 2.7 million (counting all over 16s). Due to technical weaknesses... this figure is estimated as 2.1 million when working from the detailed Labour Force Survey data.
"Whichever figure is used," it continued, "more than half of the increase was accounted for by foreign/migrant workers.
"The actual proportion of the employment increase accounted for by foreigners/migrants ranges from just over 50 per cent when looking at foreign nationals and the 16-plus age group to just over 80 per cent when looking at country of birth and excluding workers who are over state pension age."
Mr Field said the report's findings showed the flaws of the government's "laissez-faire" approach to immigration.
"It's not just in the London area where you don't hear English being spoken," he told the Guardian. "I am not blaming anybody ... [but] we have had enough of a good thing.
"I don't think the government is trying to do a cover-up here, but the data keeps falling apart in their hands," Mr Field added.