British jobs for foreign workers: Experts reveal 70% of new jobs taken by migrants

More than seven out of ten jobs created under the Labour Government have been taken by foreign-born workers, experts revealed last night.

The percentage of new jobs taken by those born overseas is the highest of any of the major economies analysed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The Conservatives said it was yet more evidence that the Government had failed to deliver 'British jobs for British workers'.

The internationally-respected OECD said that in the first ten years of Labour rule, employment rose by around two million jobs.

But it said 'almost 1.5million of this was accounted for by persons born abroad' - 71 per cent of the total.

In the U.S., immigrant employment accounted for 58 per cent of new jobs. In France, it made up less than 20 per cent of the total, and in Ireland and Australia less than 30 per cent.

Over a ten-year period, only Luxembourg saw more of its new jobs taken by migrant workers, the OECD said.

Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green said: 'Yet another of Gordon Brown's soundbites has proved to be false. This Government has created British jobs for foreign workers and all his pledges about new job creation are shown to be bogus.'

Around a third of the migrant workers arrived here on controversial intra-company transfers, the OECD said.

The system allows international companies to transfer their staff to the UK for supposedly limited periods.

But the companies did not have to advertise the post in the UK first and staff can stay for up to three years, plus a possible two-year extension after which they can apply for settlement.

The OECD figures cover the period from March 1997 to March 2007. But, since then, ministers have continued to hand out work permits to non-EU nationals in record numbers.

In 2008, as the country slid into recession, 151,635 were issued. The document lets non-EU workers take or keep jobs here, despite hundreds of thousands of Britons losing theirs.

Unemployment rose by 290,000 from December 1, 2007 to November 30, 2008, to reach 1.92million.

In 2007, when the economy was growing, 129,700 work permits were approved. In 1997, the year Labour came to power, 42,800 were handed out.

The OECD report also predicts that temptation for Poles and other Eastern Europeans to work in Britain may soon return.

Anecdotal evidence suggests-significant numbers of migrants have returned home in the economic downturn.

This is due to fewer jobs being available in industries such as construction and the collapse in the value of the pound.

But the report says the pound's appreciation relative to the zloty (the currency of Poland) may 'reduce the incentive to return'.

Border and Immigration Minister Phil Woolas said: 'We've introduced a flexible points based system which allows us to raise and lower the bar according to the needs of the labour market. This ensures only those with the skills we need, and no more, can come to work in Britain.'