Non-EU workers outnumber EU ones in various UK sectors in post-Brexit shift
There are now more non-EU than EU workers in a number of sectors that were previously reliant on European citizens, demonstrating the Brexit effect and the impact of international events on immigration patterns.
Guardian analysis shows that the number of non-EU workers surpassed their EU counterparts for the first time in 2022, at an average of 2.7 million against 2.5 million workers last year.
It also shows that various sectors which once relied on EU workers – such as accommodation and food services, admin, and wholesale, retail and vehicle repair – have shifted towards non-EU and British employees.
Other sectors such as agriculture, forestry and fishing still depend on EU workers, but have witnessed changes. About one in seven people employed in thesector last summer were EU citizens, a significant decline from the 23% before the pandemic. The proportion of non-EU workers has risen to 6%, compared with 2% in 2019 and 1% before the Brexit referendum.
The director of Oxford University’s migration observatory, Madeleine Sumption, said Brexit had contributed to the shift with decisions such as the work visa system for care workers and the liberalisation of post-study work rules for international students, but “it is definitely not the only thing going on”.
“The Brexit policies restricted migration into low-wage industries,” she said. “However, this migration into low-wage industries ended up happening anyway, for other reasons that were not part of the Brexit prospectus, such as the Hong Kong and Ukraine schemes, and increased demand from the NHS.”
Before 2020 two-thirds of foreign workers in the hospitality and administrative services sectors were EU citizens, as well as half of those in wholesale, vehicle retail and repair,
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