TIMES 12.2.09
Statistics chief inflames row over foreign workers
ONS highlights figures on jobs for immigrants for the first time
Sam Coates, Richard Ford and David Brown
The UK's official statistician weighed into the debate about foreign
workers yesterday by highlighting the growing numbers of immigrants
getting jobs while the British workforce declines.
On the day that figures showed the number of people unemployed at a
12-year high, the Office for National Statistics chose to reveal that
the number of foreign workers increased by 175,000 to 2.4 million
last year while the number of British workers fell by 234,000 to 27
million.
Karen Dunnell, the National Statistician, sought to focus public
attention on the contrasting fortunes of foreign and British workers
as the country slipped into recession. Her intervention came as
construction workers took part in wildcat strikes at power stations
in Nottinghamshire and Kent, angry about jobs going to foreigners.
The ONS, which is charged with collecting data and providing
impartial analysis, said that it made the unprecedented release
because of the "topicality of the issue".
Whitehall sources told The Times that ministers were "fizzing" with
anger, accusing the ONS of a political act designed to embarrass
Gordon Brown over his "British jobs for British workers" soundbite.
MPs warned that the statistics were open to misinterpretation and
risked inflaming tensions in many British workplaces.
In January, 73,800 people signed on for jobless benefits, bringing
the claimant total to 1.23 million. The number of people out of work
reached 1.97 million between October and December, the highest level
since August 1997. Jobs were also lost at a record rate. Yesterday
the cash-and-carry chain Makro said that 400 workers faced
redundancy. The ONS has for years collected details on the origin of
those working in Britain. The figures are usually included in the
pages of data making up the monthly jobless totals, which yesterday
ran to 24 tables. They are also included in quarterly population and
migration figures, due out at the end of this month.
Yesterday was the first time that the ONS had highlighted the
employment fortunes of foreigners in a separate press release, and
the first time it had issued more than one release on unemployment.
MPs said that the release, headed "UK-born and non-UK-born
employment", was misleading because many of those born outside the
country had since become UK citizens.
The row is the latest dispute between the ONS and the Government over
the release of official data. The ONS won independence from the
Government last year after claims that ministers were manipulating
figures for political advantage.
The figures showed that since the beginning of 1997, the year Labour
came to power, the number of foreign-born workers has almost doubled.
Over the same period, the number of British-born workers has risen by
just 5 per cent to 25.58 million.
However, ministers believe that the figures are meaningless because
they fail to distinguish between temporary workers, Europeans and
those on indefinite leave to remain.
A senior government source said: "The fact that they highlighted this
in this way, in a press release, looks like they are trying to
embarrass the Government over the slogan 'British Jobs for British
workers'."
Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee,
said that he would raise concerns about the release of the figures
with the Prime Minister today. "The danger is that such information
could be misconstrued or misused by those who do not support the view
that Britain should be a diverse and multicultural society," he said.
Unions warned that the presentation of the figures could be used to
stoke resentment amid rising unemployment. They also warned that the
classifications were misleading.
Phil Woolas, the Immigration Minister, said that there was likely to
be a "time lag" in non-UK workers losing their jobs during a
downturn. "If you've come in to work, you're on a temporary visa;
you're not going to be made redundant during that period but your
contract for the job isn't necessarily going to be renewed," he said.
Gordon Brown told the Commons: "Despite all the figures that are
bandied about today and on other days, the percentage of non-UK
nationals employed in the United Kingdom is 8 per cent and it is
lower than many other countries that people compare us with."
The ONS told The Times that Ms Dunnell was abroad and unable to
comment. It said that she had taken the decision to release the
figures separately alongside the unemployment data for the first
time. "There was absolutely no outside influence on this decision to
publish this data yesterday," a spokesman said. "The aim is to help
public information and avoid potential confusion if alternative
statistics were published."
In other countries
Germany The Federal Agency for Employment tracks and publishes the
number of foreign nationals working in the country. Foreign nationals
account for about 15 per cent of the total number of unemployed, or
522,405. The unemployment rate in Germany is about 8.3 per cent
Italy The statistical office has published annual figures on foreign
workers since 2006, broken down by nationality, age, gender, region
of employment and qualifications. The latest report says there are
3.5 million registered foreigners in Italy, of whom 1.5 million are
in regular employment, which amounts to 6.4 per cent of the total
Italian workforce. Half of all foreigners employed in Italy are from
Albania, Romania, Ukraine, Morocco and the Philippines
France The state statistics agency estimates that there are 3.8
million employed workers of foreign origin in France, representing
8.5 per cent of the total workforce of 25.4 million. The annual
inward flow of workers, whether from EU states or beyond, is not
published
United States The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the
foreign-born share of the US workforce grew in 2007, to 24 million,
or 15.7 per cent. This was up from 15.3 per cent in 2006
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