A record number of migrants from outside the EU are working in Britain while numbers from inside are falling.
Figures published yesterday show that a leap in the number of workers from Asia was almost matched by a fall in eastern Europeans to a five-year low. Analysts pointed to a “Brexit effect”.
Employers will fear that the Office for National Statistics figures are further evidence of the challenges they will face in filling posts, particularly for seasonal or low-skilled jobs.
The number of non-EU migrants in work rose to 1.295 million in the last quarter of 2018, up 130,000 on the same period in 2017. However, the number of EU citizens dropped by 61,000 from 2.33 million to 2.27 million.
Tej Parikh, senior economist at