Four out of five new UK jobs taken by foreign workers since 2014

Four out of five new jobs created in Britain since 2014 went to overseas workers rather than to British citizens, research has found. The Centre for Social Justice think tank found that 3.7 million jobs have been added to the workforce in Britain in the past 12 years. Most commented 1 Selma Blair charged with assault after ‘biting flight attendant’ US news 241 comments Of these, 734,000 went to Britons, but some 2.5 million went to people from countries outside the European Union. The smallest portion went to EU nationals, who accounted for 408,000 jobs. Politics newsletter Get our daily insider’s guide to Westminster, plus a rundown of PMQs every Wednesday. Sign up with one click You’ve successfully signed up to the Politics newsletter Explore our newsletters An error occurred. Please use the link below. Politics newsletter Explore our newsletters The vast majority of these overseas workers entered jobs in sectors such as hospitality, retail and social care , accounting for two thirds of all extra jobs given to workers from outside the EU. Top stories 1 Starbucks ‘explores takeover’ of Chipotle Mexican Grill US business The findings are part of a report into the welfare system led by Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader and work and pensions secretary who is a director of the CSJ. Advertisement Ministers are under pressure to find a solution to ease the ballooning cost of the welfare system. The cost of benefits for working-age adults is set to reach £136.1bn by next year, an increase of almost £50bn since the start of the pandemic, according to official figures. The benefits system is failing. We hope to help fix it Duncan Smith said that the report’s findings showed an economic crisis which “extends beyond the benefit system”. Sir Iain Duncan Smith Ben Montgomery for The Times “The truth is that successive governments have used welfare over decades to compensate parts of the country for economic failure rather than creating the conditions for prosperity,” he said. Top stories 1 Rental tracker: have rents gone up or down in your area? Property & Home “Compounding this, ministers have repeatedly pulled the easy lever of immigration rather than providing a better deal for left-behind communities. Welfare reform, immigration and regional growth must now be treated as parts of the same challenge.” Advertisement Revealed: Nearly two million on sickness benefits left unchecked According to the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, some 3.4 million people from outside the EU migrated to Britain between 2021 and 2025, as part of the “Boriswave” — a surge in migration which followed the post-Brexit policies of Boris Johnson. By comparison in the same period about 162,000 more EU nationals left the UK than the number who arrived. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, announced plans last year to double the standard time it takes to qualify for indefinite leave to remain, which grants the right for foreign nationals to live, work, study and claim benefits in the UK permanently, as part of an attempt to tackle the surge. Shabana Mahmood The Times photographer richard pohle Dr Ben Brindle, senior researcher at the Migration Observatory, said that the proportion of jobs reflected wider trends in migration after Brexit. “What that evidence has generally found in the past is that migration can have some impacts on British workers’ employment or wages, but that the effects are relatively small,” he said. “That is because migration increases competition for jobs, but also increases the number of jobs. Advertisement “When more people are available to work, employers expand production and sometimes also change how they work, using more workers and less machinery and technology. Migrants also buy goods and services, which increases demand. In the long run, this expands the population but does not necessarily lead to positive or negative impacts in the labour market.” Shabana Mahmood: Labour too willing to ‘pull immigration lever’ A government spokesperson said: “The vast majority of this country’s workforce is made up of UK nationals, and we have introduced a number of changes including a new skills-based migration system to put British workers first and welcome the high-skilled talent that our economy needs. “We are also reforming the welfare system by creating almost a million work opportunities for young people through our Youth Guarantee, while investing £3.5bn to help disabled people and those with long-term health conditions move closer to the labour market.”