UK Nationals Not Happy Over The Number Of EU Migrants Getting Jobs
The United Kingdom has faced a rise in unemployment over the last couple of months based on data released by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The stats published also revealed that by the end of June 2015, there was an increase in jobs for UK nationals by 84,000 and the total increase in the number of jobs for non-UK nationals was 257,000.
ONS also revealed that towards the end of June, there was a drop in the number of workers who were born and worked in the UK. The number had fallen to 170,000 while on the contrary no of EU-born individuals who now worked in the UK had increased by 85,000 and foreign nationals working in the UK climbed by 30,000. The total number of non-UK nationals working in the UK now stands at 3.1 million.
Dr Carlos Vargas-Silva who works at Oxford University’s Migration Observatory stated that these numbers were not surprising as a number of EU countries had weak economies and individuals were looking to move over to the UK and find employment as the UK economy was a lot stronger and salary packages a lot more attractive when compared to other EU countries.
Considering the rise in unemployment over the last 2 months in the UK, these stats published by ONS has caused a lot of controversy both in the public domain and in the parliament. A number of UK nationals feel left out as they are unable to get a job in their country of birth, while migrants are able to work and get paid well. The opposition party in Parliament put pressure on the current government to address EU migration and to protect the job market in the UK. Douglas Fraser who works as a business and economics editor at BBC Scotland stated that each individual could interpret the stats released by ONS in a different way.
In a statement, Fraser said
Either these are people doing jobs that resident UK people should be trained to do, and perhaps their presence is a brake on wage growth, or the British economy is benefiting from its flexibility and proving a very attractive place for others to come and work, bringing their skills to help grow the economy for everyone’s benefit. Many big employers would like more flexibility to bring in skilled workers from outside the EU, including those who have recently graduated from UK universities.
