Nigerians and Indians have seen the most significant growth in employment in the UK between 2019 and 2023, according to data from His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
The HMRC, which is the UK’s tax authority responsible for collecting direct and indirect taxes, as well as administering benefits and tax credit payments, provided the data following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Neil O’Brien, a member of parliament and former government minister.
The data shows a remarkable shift in the UK’s employment landscape, with about 10 percent fewer jobs held by European Union (EU) nationals, while employment among people from outside the EU increased by 69 percent during the period.
Of the 1.481 million additional employments recorded in the UK, 1.465 million were held by non-EU nationals, with UK nationals accounting for only 257,000. Specifically, nationals from India and Nigeria saw the most significant increases, with 488,000 and 279,000 more employments, respectively. Pakistan and Ghana also recorded substantial employment growth, with increases of 101,000 and 55,000, respectively.
“Within that non-EU total, the biggest growth in employments in absolute terms were among nationals of India (+488,000), Nigeria (+279,000), Pakistan (+101,000), and Ghana (+55,000),” O’Brien noted in his analysis of the report.
In the private sector, non-EU nationals saw a 1.2 million increase in employment opportunities, while UK nationals secured just 29,000 additional jobs.
However, the report also highlighted a decline in earnings for Indian and Nigerian nationals relative to their UK counterparts. Before the pandemic, young working-age individuals from India and Nigeria earned 15 and 10 percent more, respectively, than UK nationals of the same age, but now they earn less.
Ben Brindle, an economist at Oxford University’s Migration Observatory think tank, suggested to the Daily Mail that non-EU migrants are increasingly taking up roles that were previously held by EU workers before Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data underscores the significant impact of migration on the UK’s employment market, with non-EU nationals playing a growing role in the country’s workforce.