Research by think tank the Resolution Foundation has revealed that migrants have benefited from employment growth since the 2008 financial crisis – but not to the detriment of native workers.
Report Setting the record straight found that the number in work has risen 2.8 per cent since the onset of the recession in 2008, sitting at 32.5 million as of October last year.
But it refuted the oft-pedalled idea that migrants are behind the employment boom, or depriving native workers of jobs. Migrants accounted for two-thirds of the rise in employment since 2008, partly because they have grown in number. But UK-born people in work rose to a record high of 75.8 per cent in the same period.
Figures also showed that disadvantaged groups including ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and people with few qualifications were brought into employment at higher rates than before.
The report described lower-employment urban Britain as playing an integral role in work growth while “catching up” with the rest of the country, though equivalent rural areas struggled to keep up.
Read this and more in our latest report – Setting the record straight https://t.co/5uHzUZi3BM pic.twitter.com/LGk6RXnCOk
— Resolution Foundation (@resfoundation) January 14, 2019