Taking "our" jobs?

There’s one group of people who, collectively, have escaped the recession - foreigners working in the UK.
Today’s figures show that the number of people born outside the UK who are working here has continued to rise. (Table 8 of this pdf.)
Since aggregate employment peaked in late 2007, employment has fallen by 580,000 among UK-born people, whilst it has risen by 202,000 for foreign-born ones.
Does this mean foreigners are taking “British” jobs? Not necessarily. It might just show that the recession is bearing disproportionately hard upon firms that employ British workers; remember, recessions are about a minority of people suffering a lot, not about averages. And the recession is hitting some industries harder than others. Of the 455,000 jobs to have gone in the last 12 months, finance has lost 187,000, manufacturing 212,000 and distribution and catering 198,000. I suspect these - and especially the firms hardest hit within them - employ disproportionately Brits. Other sectors (including construction) have been little affected, whilst the public sector has expanded.
A look at employment rates by country of birth shows that many foreigners have suffered more than Brits. Employment rates for Africans, Americans and workers from new EU countries have fallen more than those of Brits. It’s been largely people from the sub-continent who have found work.
Perhaps what’s happening, then, is that foreign-born folk - or at least Indians and Pakistanis - have more recession-proof skills than the Brits. Maybe what’s happened is that Woolies have laid off Brits, whilst the NHS has taken on Indian doctors, writ large.
This is consistent with the key finding of labour market research - that the effect of immigration on wages is  small or non-existent, a fact that is best explained by the fact that immigrants and natives do different jobs. 

Comments

[marksany]

The twin to this issue is that the benefit system also plays out very disproprtionatly for Brits and foreigners, and the distortions of the welfare system spills into a distorted jobs market.

[Carmenego]

I was just talking about this with a mate! Us ethnics make up something between 10 and 15% of the population, yet are disproportionately represented in areas like the NHS and financial sector.
I wonder why some people are so quick to cite immigration as *the* main problem in the UK? Does anyone know if research has been done into the mass psychology behind this?

[AV]

Doesn’t that table just show the increase in the size of the non-UK-born population? The next table, 8(1), ‘Working age employment rates by country of birth and nationality’ is more useful (e.g., sudden growth of EU accession countries, persistently low employment rates for people born in Pakistan and Bangladesh, small falls in employment from their peaks for all except perhaps Aus/NZ and India).

I am too lazy to graph it, though...

[reason]

Family businesses taking in underemployed relatives?

[roym]

Carmenego,

yes its called the daily wail effect

[PWG]

Of the 455,000 jobs to have gone in the last 12 months, finance has lost 187,000, manufacturing 212,000 and distribution and catering 198,000.

The numbers don't add up - is there overlap between these types of jobs?

[Leigh Caldwell]

PWG: 455,000 is the net reduction, so there have been gains in other sectors to offset the losses in those three. Public sector employment has risen and a few parts of the private sector too.

Interestingly the ONS has now reclassified Lloyds and RBS employees as public sector workers, meaning that the public sector total has gone up by over 200,000!

[Andy]

@Carmenego
"I wonder why some people are so quick to cite immigration as *the* main problem in the UK?"

Because the chronically inadequate must always have someone else to blame for their shortcomings.

[Scratch]

Because the chronically inadequate must always have someone else to blame for their shortcomings.

I presumed bally oiks where the preferred target of the chronically inadequate.

[Steve]

There's a statistics released last month that UK is cutting more jobs in May'09. This shows that recession is hardly hitting UK as well. But economists expect that this trend may improve in late 2009.

[patsyh]

What's the point arguing over statistics? It's not about that. The high influx of immigrants,the PC-gone-mad culture, make people feel like (ignored) strangers in their own country. Yes, it is their country: people are tribal, it's innate & unavoidable.Manufacturing in the north is being decimated, & it just (coincidentally)happens that the north has large conurbations of immigrants. And disabuse yourself of ideas that only whites are racist

[rolex datejust]

And a lot of it reflects a switch from bank deposits to securities; foreigners “other investments” in the UK, http://www.watchgy.com/ mostly bank deposits, fell by £143.2bn in Q1. And of course there’s no guarantee such buying will continue.
http://www.watchgy.com/tag-heuer-c-24.html
http://www.watchgy.com/rolex-submariner-c-8.html

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