Surge in eastern Europeans working in UK since EU referendum
I reflected on the importance of migrant workers to the food industry in the context of this article. It tells us:
There has been a surge in the number of eastern Europeans working in Britain since the EU referendum but numbers from France, Germany and other western European countries have dipped, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics said the number of eastern Europeans working in Britain rose by 46,000 between June and September, to 1,053,000.
It is the first official indication that the vote has triggered an increase in labour from eastern Europe amid fears that Britain will close its doors, particularly to unskilled labour from the EU.
At the same time the numbers in work from western European countries fell by 7,000 to 937,000, suggesting that uncertainty about their status in a post-Brexit Britain is already beginning to put off some French and German people from remaining or coming to work in the UK.
The Brexit vote also seems to have led to a drop in the number of people coming to Britain from Romania and Bulgaria, the latest countries to join the EU.
The quarterly ONS labour market figures show that the number of non-UK nationals working in Britain rose by 241,000 in the 12 months to this September, to 3.49 million, or just under 11% of the UK workforce. Over the same period the number of Britons working in the UK rose by 213,000 to 28.39 million.