Pre-Brexit position
In 2016, the UK labour market comprised 26.9 million (89%) UK nationals and 3.4 million (11%) non-UK nationals: 2.2 million (7%) were from the EU and 1.2 million (4%) from other countries.
International immigration was particularly important to the wholesale and retail, hospitality, and public administration and health sectors, which together employed around 1.5 million non-UK nationals.
The sectors with the most EU nationals were (see Table 6.3):
- wholesale and retail (507,000);
- financial and business services (382,000);
- public administration, education and health (362,000); and,
- manufacturing (312,000).
The industry sectors most dependent proportionately on migrant workers (EU and non-EU) were: transport and communication (14.4% of workforce), manufacturing (13.9%) and wholesale and retail trade (13.5%).
Table 6.3: Analysis of 2016 workforce
| Industry sector | UK | EU | Non-EU | Non-UK | Total | EU | Non-EU | Non-UK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Industry sector | 000's | 000's | 000's | 000's | 000's | % | % | % |
| Wholesale and retail trade, hotels and restaurants | 4,861 | 507 | 254 | 761 | 5,623 | 9.0% | 4.5% | 13.5% |
| Financial and business services | 4,528 | 382 | 233 | 615 | 5,143 | 7.4% | 4.5% | 12.0% |
| Public admin, education and health | 8,362 | 362 | 339 | 701 | 9,063 | 4.0% | 3.7% | 7.7% |
| Manufacturing | 2,439 | 312 | 82 | 394 | 2,833 | 11.0% | 2.9% | 13.9% |
| Transport and communication | 2,361 | 243 | 156 | 399 | 2,760 | 8.8% | 5.6% | 14.4% |
| Construction | 1,901 | 185 | 47 | 231 | 2,132 | 8.7% | 2.2% | 10.9% |
| Other services | 1,569 | 84 | 71 | 155 | 1,724 | 4.9% | 4.1% | 9.0% |
| Energy and water | 471 | 23 | 15 | 38 | 510 | 4.6% | 3.0% | 7.5% |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | 263 | 22 | - | 22 | 285 | 7.7% | 0.0% | 7.7% |
| Not allocated to sectors | 159 | 60 | 9 | 69 | 228 | |||
| Totals | 26,915 | 2,181 | 1,206 | 3,387 | 30,302 | |||
| Total % | 88.8% | 7.2% | 4.0% | 11.2% | 100.0% |
Note: as the ONS figures were not seasonally adjusted, they probably understated short-term and temporary workers.
Sectors dependent on EU workers
Within sub-sectors, large numbers of EU workers were found in logistics, the NHS and social care.
- Logistics industry: nearly 300,000 (14%) EU workers were employed. 93,000 EU nationals work in warehousing and other storage jobs, 23% of the total workforce. 31,500 Large Goods Vehicle drivers (10% of the total), 22,500 van drivers (9%), and 20,500 forklift truck drivers (21%) were from elsewhere in the EU. As with the food and drink industry, EU workers were filling the gap left by an undersupply in the domestic labour market.
- NHS and social care: In 2019, there were approximately 180,000 EU nationals working in health and social care. They represented 5.5% of the NHS workforce and 9% in adult social care. In 2019, just under 11,000 doctors were working in the NHS (9.5% of doctors), who had received their primary medical qualification in another EU country. Mutual recognition of professional standards across the EU makes it easy for nurses and doctors to work in different EU countries. (Sources: House of Commons Library, July 2019 and The Kings’ Fund, October 2019)
EU citizens accounted for a high proportion of the workforce in food and drink manufacturing (29%), the creative industries (around 25%) and higher education (16%).
- Food and drink manufacturing was more reliant on EU workers than any other sector of the UK economy. c29% of the UK’s food and drink manufacturing workforce were non-British EU nationals (almost 120,000 workers).
- Creative industries: according to the Creative Industries Federation, EU workers constituted 25% of all workers in the UK visual effects industry, with non-EU workers accounting for another 12%. Similarly, UK video games companies drew 20%-30% of their staff from the EU.
- Higher education: the UK sector employed significant numbers of non-UK EU nationals. Non-UK EU nationals made up 16% of the UK-based academic workforce.
Sources:
ONS, International immigration and the labour market, UK: 2016, April 2017
Nick Clegg, Freedom of movement, Nov 2016
Post-Brexit position
Since Brexit, the numbers of non-EU workers have increased at a faster rate than the numbers of EU workers (see Figure 6.7).
The share of employee jobs held by people who were non-UK citizens when they first registered for a national insurance number (‘adult migrants’) has steadily increased over the past decade, rising from 12% in July 2014 (3.5 million) to 20% in December 2024 (6.3 million)
The share of jobs held by EU citizens rose from 6% in 2014 to a peak of 9% in 2019 before falling to 7% in 2024.
In the same period, the share of jobs held by non-EU citizens rose from 6% in 2014 to 7% before the Brexit immigration system was introduced, and then climbed to 12% in 2024.
Figure 6.7: Non-UK born workers in employment, 2014 to 2024
EU and non-EU jobs by sector
In December 2024, a quarter of the jobs held by non-EU employees were in the health and care sector – 976,000 jobs (Figure 6.8), followed by admin and support services (590,000), hospitality (448,000), retail (446,000), professional and technical (282,000) and education (247,000).
This share stood at 22% in February 2022 but rose sharply after care workers were made eligible for Skilled Worker visas—111,500 Skilled Worker visas had been granted to care workers by the end of 2024.
EU employees were more evenly distributed across the sectors, with administrative services (332,000 jobs), retail (296,000), health and care (229,000), and manufacturing (265,000) being the most common sectors.
As these figures only include employees, they do not fully capture working patterns in sectors with higher levels of self-employment or cash-in-hand work, such as construction. In addition, in certain sectors, people work multiple jobs, which may lead to some proportions being overstated.
Figure 6.8: Distribution of migrant workers across sectors
