Number of EU workers in UK hits all-time high despite Brexit

The number of non-British EU citizens working in Britain has reached a record high since last year’s Brexit referendum, according to a government report released yesterday.

The report, which was published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), states that around 2.38 million EU nationals were working in the UK between July and September this year.

This is reportedly an increase of 112,000 for the same time period last year. It’s the highest number recorded since records began in 1997.

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The report also reveals that the employment rate in the UK – the proportion of people aged 16 to 64 years who are in work – was 81.6 percent for EU nationals. The figure for UK nationals was lower, at 75.3%.

The number of workers from the 14 “western EU countries”, including Italy, France and Germany, rose by 45,000 to 987,000 in the year after the referendum, writes The Times, while the number of Bulgarians and Romanians increased by 90,000 to 347,000.

Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of Migration Watch UK, which campaigns for lower immigration, wrote on Facebook that the figures show that “predictions of a Brexodus — an outflow of EU workers — are nonsense.

“In fact there has been an increase in the last year. Part of this is a net inflow of Romanians and Bulgarians who mainly go into low-paid work.”

Earlier this week, Brexit Secretary David Davis was told that the European Parliament would block any Brexit deal that resulted in EU citizens living in the UK being deported when Britain leaves the EU, The Independent reports.