Employment by Country of Birth and Nationality
This Commons Library briefing paper analyses data on employment in the UK by country of birth and nationality. The briefing compares data from 1997 to 2021 and explains how figures for employment by nationality can differ to those for employment by country of birth.
The Office for National Statistics have suspended the publication of employment levels by country of birth and nationality from the beginning of 2020 onwards. They are currently carrying out a reweighting exercise of this data, which is expected to be completed in July. Further information is available in the ONS article Labour Force Survey weighting methodology.
This Library briefing paper will not be updated until these statistics are republished. Please note that the currently published version of this briefing paper does contain the employment levels data that has subsequently been suspended. This information should be used with caution as it may change when the data is republished.
The ONS continue to publish employment rates by ethnic group sand this is available in the ONS Employment by country of birth and nationality dataset.
Employment by Nationality
In January-March 2021 the employment rate for UK nationals was 75.2%. For non UK nationals it was 75.4%, for EU nationals it was 79.9%, and for non-EU nationals it was 69.9%.
Employment by Country of Birth
We can alternatively look at employment levels based on people’s country of birth rather than nationality. Some people who are UK nationals may have been born in other countries; similarly, some non-UK nationals may have been born in the UK. People can also change their nationality.
In January-March 2021, the employment rate for people born in the UK was 75.2%. For people born outside the UK it was 75.3%, for people born in the EU it was 80.3% and for people born outside the EU it was 72.5%.