The number of Poles, Latvians and other eastern European nationals working in Britain fell by 5% last year, providing fresh evidence that a “Brexodus” is under way.

The Office of National Statistics said the number of people working in Britain from western EU countries continued to rise in the last year, but at a significantly slower pace.

The ONS labour market figures published on Thursday show the total number of EU nationals working in Britain rose by 101,000 in 2017 to 2.3 million. This is almost half the 196,000 increase in 2016, confirming the slowdown in the rate of growth of EU worker migration.

The figure of 101,000 compares with an increase of 294,000 in the number of UK workers in the British labour force. EU migrants accounted for just over 50% of the increase in employment in Britain in 2016. That has now fallen to 25%.

The ONS said the slowdown in the number of employees coming from lower-income countries – especially eastern European states such as Poland and Latvia – and the higher net increase in the number of British people in work, might eventually push average wages higher.

It said, however, that things were more complicated in reality.



“Our earlier analysis showed that there exist significant differences between the skills, age profile, and occupations of UK and non-UK nationals in the workforce. In this context, it is also important to consider the wider considerations of both the jobs being created, and the people occupying those positions,” the ONS said.

The detailed figures show that overall employment in Britain rose by 328,000 to 32.2 million. This included the increase of 294,000 in the number of British workers, to 28.7 million, and a rise of 33,000, to 3.5 million, in non-UK workers.

The 101,000 rise of EU nationals other than Britons working in the UK took their total to 2.3m. This included a 53,000 fall in the numbers eight eastern EU countries known as the EU 8, including Poland, Latvia and the Czech Republic, to 961,000.

There was a 79,000, or 8%, increase in the number of western European, EU 14, countries, such as France and Spain, to 1.01 million. There was also a rise of 79,000, or 28%, in the number of workers from Romania and Bulgaria, A2 countries, to 364,000. Restrictions on Romanians and Bulgarians working in Britain were lifted in 2014.

The number of overseas workers from outside the EU working in Britain fell by 68,000 to 1.17 million in 2017, but have remained broadly at this level for the last 10 years.

EU migrants working in the British labour force accounted for nearly all the increase seen in overseas workers, from 928,000 in 1997 to the current total of 3.52 million.