MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Foreign workers monopolize almost all new UK jobs

Almost all the new jobs created in Britain in the last seven years have gone to foreign workers. Of the 1.3million jobs created since 2001, the vast majority - went to non-UK nationals, official figures show. At the same time the number of UK-born workers in employment fell by 62,000.

Pressure group Migrationwatch, which analysed UK government data, said nearly half a million jobs went to migrants from Eastern Europe. Chairman Sir Andrew Green said: "From an immigration point of view this means that migration from Eastern Europe is moving into balance as we have been predicting but, from the point of view of British born workers, the damage to their prospects has already been done - at a time when jobs of almost all kinds are at a premium." "This must have been staring the Government in the face for a long time yet even last month they described the East European migrants as 'helping to fill gaps in the Labour market'." Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "This is yet more evidence that completely undermines Gordon Brown's unwise proclamation that he would deliver British jobs for British workers." Between 2001 and 2008 there were 1,342,000 more people in employment in the UK. But of those 439,000 were Eastern Europeans and 618,000 were foreign workers from outside the EU. Some 315,000 jobs went to "naturalised" foreigners who took on British citizenship. In 2004 eight Eastern European countries were admitted to the EU and their citizens given full access to the British jobs market. Stricter rules apply to workers from Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the EU in 2007. Migrants from these countries must apply for work permits and can only work in certain sectors. Ministers will announce on Thursday whether the barriers for Romanian and Bulgarian workers will be lifted or remain in force for another three years.