Official Statistics

UK payrolled employments by nationality, region and industry, from July 2014 to June 2021

Updated 23 March 2023

Overview

This experimental statistics publication includes counts of payrolled employments in the UK from HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Pay as You Earn (PAYE) Real Time Information (RTI) data and HMRC’s Migrant Worker Scan (MWS).

As individuals who were furloughed as part of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme should still have their employments reported through the PAYE system, they should feature in these data and contribute toward the employment statistics for the relevant period.

Payrolled employment counts in this publication are broken down by geographical regions (NUTS1), industrial sectors (SIC2007) and nationality groupings (UK, EU and non-EU). Further EU nationality breakdowns (EU14, EU8, EU2 and Other EU) are also provided for the total counts of payrolled employments in the UK by industry.

Nationality breakdowns are determined using HMRC’s MWS. Nationality is reported by individuals when they register for a National Insurance number through the adult National Insurance number registration process. If an individual has subsequently naturalised or changed nationality, this will not be reflected in these statistics.

These statistics cover the period 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2021. During this period there are key dates we refer to relating to EU exit and the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These dates are:

• 23 June 2016 - The UK held a referendum and 52% of those who voted chose to leave the EU

• 29 March 2017 - Article 50 was triggered starting a two-year countdown to the UK formally leaving the EU on 29 March 2019. After further extensions to this deadline, the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 and entered a transition period

• 23 March 2020 - Announcement of the first COVID-19 lockdown and introduction of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Throughout this article we have used June 2019 as a pre-pandemic reference point. This is two years prior to the latest point in the data. As the data in this release are non-seasonally adjusted, comparing the same months in each year helps to assess the recovery of payrolled employments.

Care needs to be taken when comparing these statistics with other sources. It is important to consider the coverage of these statistics.

Payrolled employments cannot be directly compared with payrolled employees. As payrolled employees can have multiple payrolled employments, payrolled employment counts follow the same trend as payrolled employee counts, but counts will be higher.

Employments from the PAYE system cannot be compared with all jobs. These statistics only include employments from the PAYE system, they do not include employments from non-payrolled sources such as self-employment.

For example, any comparisons to estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) should be treated with caution. Differences between the two sources are possible for reasons including, but not limited to, sampling variability in the LFS as well as definitional differences in nationality and payrolled employments as outlined above. For more information see Comparison of labour market data sources.

Further information is in the comparability and related publications section of this release.

These statistics are Experimental Statistics and are subject to revisions. Further information on the data sources and the meaning of the term Experimental Statistics is provided later in this publication.

Contact details

For queries or feedback on this publication, please contact:

• T Curd

For press queries, please contact:

• D Kelso
• I Jones

Main points

Payrolled employments in the UK, July 2014 to June 2021

• in July 2014, there were 28.39 million payrolled employments in the UK. UK nationals accounted for 88% (24.87 million), EU nationals accounted for 6% (1.84 million) and non-EU nationals also accounted for 6% (1.69 million)

• in June 2016, the UK voted ‘leave’ in the United Kingdom EU membership referendum. Over the next three years (up to and including June 2019): payrolled employments of UK nationals increased by 522,000 (2%), payrolled employments of EU nationals increased by 304,000 (13%) and payrolled employments of non-EU nationals increased by 254,000 (14%)

• in March 2020, the Government announced that they would be implementing measures intended to halt the spread of COVID-19. At this point, there were 30.46 million payrolled employments in the UK. Over the next ten months, payrolled employments of UK nationals decreased by 848,000 (3%), payrolled employments of EU nationals decreased by 199,000 (8%) and payrolled employments of non-EU nationals decreased by 9,000 (<1%)

• between March 2021 and June 2021, the total number of payrolled employments increased by 956,000. Of this increase, 804,000 were held by UK nationals, 92,000 by non-EU nationals and 60,000 by EU nationals

• in June 2021, payrolled employments of non-EU nationals were 186,000 above the pre-pandemic level at 2.23 million. Comparatively, payrolled employments of UK nationals were 197,000 below the pre-pandemic level at 25.79 million and payrolled employments of EU nationals were 171,000 below the pre-pandemic level at 2.48 million

Payrolled employments by region and nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

• in the UK, London consistently had the highest number of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals between July 2014 and June 2021. Payrolled employments held by EU and non-EU nationals in London each peaked in November 2019 at 861,000

• between June 2016 and June 2019, all countries and regions of the UK experienced an increase in the number of payrolled employments

• between June 2019 and June 2021, the total number of payrolled employments in the UK decreased. However, the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands and Northern Ireland experienced small increases in payrolled employment counts

• in June 2021, London had the highest proportion of payrolled employments held by EU nationals out of all of the regions and countries of the UK, at 18%. This was followed by the East at 9%. London also had the highest proportion of payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals at 20%, followed by the South East at 8%

Payrolled employments by industry and nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

• between June 2016 and June 2019, payrolled employments in health and social work increased by 257,000, the largest increase across all industries. Of this increase, 169,000 were held by UK nationals, 57,000 by non-EU nationals and 31,000 by EU nationals

• between June 2019 and June 2021, accommodation and food services saw the largest decrease in payrolled employments. The total number of payrolled employments decreased by 124,000, largely due to a drop of 98,000 in payrolled employments held by EU nationals

• in June 2021, agriculture, forestry and fishing had the largest proportion of payrolled employments held by EU nationals at 17%. Health and social work, administrative and support services and information and communication were the industries with the highest proportion of payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals, all at 11%

About the data in this release

The data in this release covers the period 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2021. It is a count of all payrolled employments that were active in a given month using HMRC’s RTI for PAYE data. This only includes employments paid through PAYE and not through other sources of income such as self-employment.

This release predominately focuses on payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals (EU and non-EU). The joint Earnings and employment from PAYE RTI release between HMRC and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) remains the primary source of information on payrolled employees. Information on how this statistical release differs from the joint HMRC and ONS statistics can be found in the comparability section .

In these statistics, we group by three broad nationality groups (UK, EU and non-EU) and four EU sub-groupings (EU14, EU8, EU2 and Other EU). More information on these groupings is provided below.

UK

The 4 countries of the United Kingdom; England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

EU

The EU consists of the 27 countries of the EU. All the individual countries that make up the EU are listed below under the EU14, EU8, EU2 and Other EU headings

EU14

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Spain and Sweden

EU8

Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004: Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia

EU2

Bulgaria and Romania

Other EU

Malta, Cyprus and Croatia

non-EU

non-EU countries excludes the UK and all EU countries identified above

Key limitations and revisions

Payrolled employment counts are a measure of payrolled employee jobs; therefore, a single employee might have multiple concurrent employments across different 2007 Standard Industry Classification (SIC) code groupings. Values for employee jobs are calculated based on the proportion of each month in which the employment was being worked (for example, if an employment started halfway through the month, then it would be counted as half a payrolled employment when aggregated up).

This approach aligns with the methodology used in the monthly earnings and employment estimates from PAYE RTI data. Occupational pensions and income from non-payrolled sources such as self-employment are not included.

Payrolled employments in the UK by nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

This section of the release presents counts of payrolled employments in the UK, broken down by nationality, from July 2014 to June 2021.

The data in this release are non-seasonally adjusted, therefore the effects of regular, or seasonal, patterns have not been removed from these series.

The underlying data for both charts in this section can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

Figure 1a: Counts of payrolled employments held by UK nationals, July 2014 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

Figure 1b: Counts of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals (EU and non-EU), July 2014 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

In July 2014, there were 28.39 million payrolled employments in the UK:

• UK nationals accounted for 88% (24.87 million)

• EU nationals accounted for 6% (1.84 million)

• non-EU nationals accounted for 6% (1.69 million)

In June 2016, the UK voted ‘leave’ in the United Kingdom EU membership referendum. Over the next three years (up to and including June 2019):

• payrolled employments of UK nationals increased by 522,000 (2%), rising to 25.98 million in June 2019

• payrolled employments of EU nationals increased by 304,000 (13%), rising to 2.65 million in June 2019

• payrolled employments of non-EU nationals increased by 254,000 (14%), rising to 2.05 million in June 2019

In March 2020, the government announced that they would be implementing measures intended to halt the spread of COVID-19. At this point, there were 30.46 million payrolled employments in the UK. Over the next ten months:

• payrolled employments of UK nationals had decreased by 848,000 (from 25.72 million) to a low point of 24.87 million in January 2021, a 3% decrease from March 2020

• payrolled employments of EU nationals had decreased by 199,000 (from 2.61 million) to a low point of 2.41 million in January 2021, an 8% decrease from March 2020

• payrolled employments of non-EU nationals had decreased by 9,000 (from 2.12 million) by January 2021. However, the lowest point of 2.06 million (a decrease of 67,000 payrolled employments from March 2020) occurred much earlier, in May 2020

The total number of payrolled employments in the UK increased to 30.50 million in June 2021, still 182,000 (1%) below the pre-pandemic level of 30.68 million in June 2019. In June 2021:

• payrolled employments of UK nationals stood at 25.79 million, 197,000 below the pre-pandemic level of 25.98 million in June 2019, a decrease of 1%

• payrolled employments of EU nationals were still 171,000 below the pre-pandemic level of 2.65 million in June 2019, a decrease of 6%

• comparatively, payrolled employments of non-EU nationals were 186,000 above the pre-pandemic level of 2.05 million in June 2019, an increase of 9%

Annual growth rates in payrolled employments by nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

This section of the release compares the number of payrolled employments in each month with the same month in the previous year. Where the annual growth rate is positive, the number of payrolled employments are higher than they were in the same month in the previous year. Where the annual growth rate is negative, the number of payrolled employments are lower than they were in the same month in the previous year.

Figure 2: Annual growth rates in payrolled employment counts by nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

Between July 2014 and March 2020:

• the annual growth in payrolled employments held by UK nationals remained positive and stable. The average growth rate was 1% and ranged between 0% and 2%

• the annual growth in payrolled employments held by EU nationals peaked at 16% in July 2015. At the time of the EU referendum in June 2016, the annual growth for EU nationals had dropped to 12%. Following the EU referendum, this decline continued and by March 2020 stood at 0%

• for non-EU nationals, the annual growth in payrolled employments steadily increased from 3% in July 2015 to 6% in March 2020

Following the introduction of COVID-19 measures in March 2020:

• the annual growth in payrolled employments held by UK nationals became negative, dropping to a low of -4% in January 2021

• the annual growth in payrolled employments held by EU nationals also became negative, dropping to a low of -8% in February 2021

• unlike payrolled employments held by UK and EU nationals, the annual growth in payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals did not become negative and reached a low of 0% in February 2021

• in April 2021, non-essential retail and outdoor venues reopened, leading to an increase in total payrolled employments. As a result, the annual growth in payrolled employments held by all nationals started to increase

• in June 2021, the annual growth in payrolled employments had risen to 2% for UK nationals and 8% for non-EU nationals. Comparatively, annual growth of EU nationals increased but remained negative at -2%

Payrolled employments by EU nationality subgroup, July 2014 to June 2021

This section of the release provides further analysis on payrolled employments held by EU nationals, split by EU nationality subgroup (EU14, EU8, EU2 and Other EU).

The underlying data for the chart below can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

Figure 3: Counts of payrolled employments held by EU nationals, split by EU nationality subgroup, July 2014 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

In July 2014, there were 1.84 million payrolled employments held by EU nationals. Of these payrolled employments:

• EU14 nationals held 40% (732,000)

• EU8 nationals held 51% (944,000)

• EU2 nationals held 8% (149,000)

• Other EU nationals held 1% (15,000)

In June 2016, the UK voted ‘leave’ in the United Kingdom EU membership referendum. Over the next three years (up to and including June 2019):

• payrolled employments held by EU14 nationals increased from 923,000 to 1.06 million

• payrolled employments held by EU8 nationals decreased from 1.07 million to 1.05 million, the only group to experience a decrease over this period

• payrolled employments held by EU2 nationals increased from 339,000 to 519,000 - the largest increase across the groups

• payrolled employments held by Other EU nationals increased from 19,000 to 23,000

In March 2020, the government announced that they would be implementing measures intended to halt the spread of COVID-19. Over the next fifteen months:

• payrolled employments held by EU14 nationals decreased from 1.06 million in March 2020 to 975,000 in February 2021, before increasing to 1.01 million in June 2021

• payrolled employments held by EU8 nationals decreased from 1.01 million to 930,000 in January 2021, before increasing to 946,000 in June 2021

• payrolled employments by EU2 and Other EU nationals also experienced similar decreases. Payrolled employments held by EU2 nationals dropped from 513,000 in March 2020 to 483,000 in January 2021 and Other EU nationals dropped slightly from 24,000 to 23,000 over the same time period

• In June 2021, all EU nationality groups were still below pre-pandemic levels

Figure 4: Annual growth rates in payrolled employment counts by EU nationality subgroup, July 2014 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

Between July 2014 and March 2020:

• the annual growth in payrolled employments decreased for all of the EU nationality subgroups

• the annual growth in payrolled employments held by EU2 nationals was the highest of the EU groups at 66% in July 2015, by March 2020 this had dropped significantly to 4%

• the annual growth rate for payrolled employments held by EU8 nationals decreased from 9% in July 2015 to 5% in June 2016. For EU14 nationals, annual growth decreased from 15% to 10%. By March 2020 the growth rate for EU8 nationals became negative at -4% and for EU14 nationals it had fallen to 2%

• unlike the EU14, EU8 and EU2 nationality groups, the growth rate in payrolled employments held by Other EU nationals increased following the EU referendum, from 10% in June 2016 to 14% in June 2019. The growth rate then fell and by March 2020 was at 7%

Following the introduction of COVID-19 measures in March 2020:

• the annual growth in payrolled employments held by EU nationals declined further. By August 2020, the annual growth rate for payrolled employments held by EU14, EU8, EU2 and Other EU nationals was negative at -4%, -7%, -2% and -1% respectively

• between August 2020 and May 2021, the annual growth rates for all the EU nationality subgroups remained negative

• in June 2021, the annual growth rates had increased for EU8, EU2 and Other EU nationals but remained negative at -4%, -3% and -1% respectively and for EU14 nationals it was 0%

Payrolled employments by region and nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

This section of the release presents the number of payrolled employments in the UK from July 2014 to June 2021, broken down by the regions and countries of the UK and nationality. Geographic location for employments is recorded based on where the corresponding individual lives, not where they work. Employments where the information is missing are assigned values based on proportions from historic trends.

The underlying data for all charts in this section can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

Figure 5: Counts of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals (EU and non-EU) by region, July 2014 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

The key points from figure 5 are:

• London consistently had the highest number of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals between July 2014 and June 2021. Payrolled employments held by EU and non-EU nationals in London both peaked in November 2019 at 861,000 for each nationality group

• in June 2021, there were 1.63 million payrolled employments in London held by non-UK nationals, making up 38% of all payrolled employments in London. Of these, 770,000 were held by EU nationals and 857,000 by non-EU nationals, accounting for 18% and 20% of all payrolled employments in London respectively

• the South East had the second highest number of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals between July 2014 and June 2021, peaking at 375,000 in July 2019 for EU nationals and 336,000 for non-EU nationals in June 2021

• the North East had the smallest number of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals throughout the time series. In June 2021, there were 28,000 payrolled employments held by EU nationals and 38,000 held by non-EU nationals, making up just 2% and 3% of all payrolled employments in the North East respectively

Annual growth rates in payrolled employments by region and nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

Figure 6 compares the number of payrolled employments in each month with the same month in the previous year. Where the annual growth rate is positive, the number of payrolled employments are higher than they were in the same month in the previous year. Where the annual growth rate is negative, the number of payrolled employments are lower than they were in the same month in the previous year.

Figure 6: Annual growth rates in payrolled employment counts by region and nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

Between July 2014 and March 2020:

• annual growth rates of payrolled employments held by EU nationals experienced a long-term decline in each of the countries and regions of the UK. Comparatively, annual growth rates of non-EU nationals experienced increases across all countries and regions of the UK

• annual growth rates of payrolled employments held by UK nationals remained low and stable in all countries and regions of the UK

Following March 2020:

• annual growth rates of payrolled employments held by both EU and UK nationals became negative in each of the countries and regions of the UK

• in London, the annual growth rate of payrolled employments held by UK and EU nationals declined by a larger amount than the rest of the countries and regions, dropping to a low of -5% in November 2020 for UK nationals and -12% in February 2021 for EU nationals

• in London, the annual growth rate for payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals was negative between May 2020 to March 2021, reaching a low of -4% in February 2021

• the annual growth for payrolled employments held by EU nationals was still negative in London at -5% in June 2021

• for payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals, the growth rate declined sharply but remained positive in all countries and regions of the UK except for London and Northern Ireland

Change in payrolled employment counts by region and nationality, June 2016 to June 2019 and June 2019 to June 2021

This section of the release shows the change in the counts of payrolled employments broken down by region and nationality across two different time periods.

Figure 7a shows the change in payrolled employments in each region and country of the UK between June 2016 and June 2019.

Figure 7b shows the change in payrolled employment counts in each region and country of the UK from June 2019 to June 2021, including the period of COVID-19 restrictions.

Figure 7a: Change in payrolled employment counts by region and nationality, June 2016 to June 2019

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

Between June 2016 and June 2019:

• for all countries and regions of the UK, there was a positive change in the number of payrolled employments

• the total number of payrolled employments in the North East increased by 16,000, the smallest change in the UK

• the total number of payrolled employments in London increased by 218,000, the largest change in the UK. This was made up of a 78,000 increase in payrolled employments held by both UK and EU nationals and a 62,000 increase in payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals

• the West Midlands was the only region in the UK that saw a larger increase in the total number of payrolled employments held by both EU and non-EU nationals compared to those held by UK nationals. In this period, payrolled employments held by EU and non-EU nationals increased by 28,000 and 24,000 respectively compared with 21,000 for those held by UK nationals

• the North East and South East were the only regions of the UK that saw a larger increase in total number of payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals when compared to EU nationals

Figure 7b: Change in payrolled employment counts by region and nationality, June 2019 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

Between June 2019 and June 2021:

• counts of payrolled employments in the UK decreased. However, the North East, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East Midlands and Northern Ireland experienced small increases in payrolled employment counts

• all countries and regions of the UK saw increases in the number of payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals. Comparatively, payrolled employments for both EU and UK nationals declined in all but one country or region

• the North West saw the largest increase of 18,000 payrolled employments

• London saw the largest decrease of 110,000 payrolled employments, composed of decreases in the number of payrolled employments held by UK and EU nationals, 39,000 and 85,000 respectively, and an increase of 15,000 payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals

• in all regions and countries of the UK, the number of payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals increased. Comparatively, Northern Ireland was the only region or country to experience an increase in the number of payrolled employments held by UK nationals, increasing by 6,000

Payrolled employments by region and nationality as of June 2021

Figure 8: Proportion of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals (EU and non-EU) in June 2021, by region

Region	EU nationals	Non-EU nationals
North East	2%	3%
North West	5%	5%
Yorkshire and the Humber	6%	4%
East Midlands	8%	5%
West Midlands	7%	7%
East	9%	7%
London	18%	20%
South East	8%	8%
South West	6%	4%
Scotland	6%	3%
Wales	4%	3%
Northern Ireland	7%	2%

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

In June 2021:

• London had the highest proportion of payrolled employments held by EU nationals out of all of the regions and countries of the UK, at 18%. This was followed by the East at 9%

• London also had the highest proportion of payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals at 20%, followed by the South East at 8%

• the North East had the lowest proportion of payrolled employments held by EU nationals at 2%

• Northern Ireland had the lowest proportion of payrolled employments attributed to non-EU nationals in the UK at 2%

Payrolled employments by industry and nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

This section of the release presents the number of payrolled employments in the UK from July 2014 to June 2021 broken down by industry (SIC2007) and nationality.

The underlying data for all of the charts in this section can be found in the accompanying spreadsheet.

Figure 9: Counts of all payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals (EU and non-EU) by industry, July 2014 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

In the accommodation and food services industry:

• 296,000 payrolled employments were held by EU nationals in July 2014. Up to June 2019, this increased by 105,000 to 401,000, a 35% increase

• 205,000 payrolled employments were held by non-EU nationals in July 2014. Up to June 2019, this increased by 17,000 to 223,000, an 8% increase

• between June 2019 and June 2021, payrolled employments held by EU nationals fell by 98,000 to 303,000, a 25% decrease. Comparatively, payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals remained close to the same level as in June 2019 at 222,000

In the wholesale and retail industry:

• payrolled employments held by EU nationals experienced an increase of 130,000 between July 2014 and June 2019, from 212,000 to 342,000, a 62% increase

• payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals experienced a smaller increase of 27,000 over the same period, from 223,000 in July 2014 to 250,000 in June 2019, a 12% increase

• between June 2019 and June 2021, payrolled employments held by EU nationals decreased by 6,000 to 336,000, a 2% decrease. Comparatively, payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals increased by 23,000 to 272,000, a 9% increase

In the transportation and storage industry:

• payrolled employments held by EU nationals experienced an increase of 86,000 between July 2014 and June 2019, from 77,000 to 163,000, an increase of 112%. This was the largest percentage increase in payrolled employments held by EU nationals across all industries over this time period

• payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals experienced a smaller increase over the same period, from 55,000 employments in July 2014 to 71,000 in June 2019, a 29% increase

• between June 2019 and June 2021, payrolled employments held by EU nationals increased by 14,000 to 177,000, a 9% increase. Comparatively, payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals increased by 12,000 to 83,000, a 17% increase

In the human health and social work activities industry:

• payrolled employments held by EU nationals experienced a 54% increase between July 2014 and June 2019, from 144,000 to 222,000

• payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals increased by 23% over the same period, from 334,000 employments in July 2014 to 410,000 in June 2019

• between June 2019 and June 2021, payrolled employments held by EU nationals increased by 10,000 to 232,000, a 4% increase. Comparatively, payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals increased by 76,000 to 486,000, a 16% increase

Annual growth rates in payrolled employment counts by industry and nationality, July 2014 to June 2021

Figure 10 compares the number of payrolled employments in each month with the same month in the previous year. Where the annual growth rate is positive, the number of payrolled employments are higher than they were in the same month in the previous year. Where the annual growth rate is negative, the number of payrolled employments are lower than they were in the same month in the previous year.

Figure 10: Annual growth rates in payrolled employment counts by nationality and industry, July 2014 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

For all the industries in figure 10, the annual percentage change in payrolled employments held by EU nationals decreased between July 2014 to March 2020.

In the human health and social work industry:

• the annual growth rate for EU nationals was 17% in July 2015, this dropped to 4% in June 2019. In March 2020, the annual growth rate had continued to decline to 3% and dropped further to 0% in May 2020, by June 2021 this had increased to 4%

• comparatively, the annual growth rate for non-EU nationals was 2% in July 2015 but increased above the growth rate for EU nationals in March 2018, before reaching 9% in March 2020. In May 2020, the annual growth rate had dropped to 5% before increasing to 13% in June 2021

In the accommodation and food services industry:

• for EU nationals, the annual growth rate in employments was 17% in July 2015 and had dropped to -2% by March 2020

• comparatively, for non-EU nationals the annual growth rate was 0% in July 2015 and had increased to 6% by March 2020

• between March 2020 and June 2021 for EU nationals, annual growth in payrolled employments dropped to a low of -30% in February 2021 before increasing to -14% in June 2021

• non-EU nationals also experienced negative annual growth, dropping to -11% in February 2021 before increasing to 1% in June 2021

In the transportation and storage industry:

• the annual growth rate for EU nationals remained above 20% between July 2015 and April 2017. In May 2017, this decreased to 18% and continued to decrease to 5% in March 2020

• the annual growth rate for non-EU nationals remained stable over the same time period, increasing from 5% in July 2015 to 7% in March 2020

• in March 2020, when COVID-19 restrictions were introduced, the annual growth in payrolled employments for UK nationals was -1%. This remained negative up to June 2021 where it stood at -2%

• comparatively, the annual growth in payrolled employments held by both EU and non-EU nationals was positive between March 2020 and June 2021. In June 2021, annual growth for EU nationals was 4% and non-EU nationals was 11%

In agriculture, forestry and fishing:

• the annual growth rate for EU nationals was 5% in July 2015. Since then, the annual growth has been in a long-term decline, dropping to -5% in March 2020

• following the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020, the decline intensified and in June 2021 annual growth was at -17% for EU nationals

• between July 2015 and March 2020, annual growth for UK nationals decreased by one percentage point from 2% to 1%

• following the introduction of COVID-19 restrictions in March 2020, the annual growth for UK nationals fluctuated before increasing sharply from -3% in January 2021 to 5% in June 2021

Change in payrolled employment counts by industry and nationality, June 2016 to June 2019 and June 2019 to June 2021

This section of the release looks at the change in the counts of payrolled employments broken down by industry and nationality across two different time periods.

Figure 11a shows the change in payrolled employments in each industry between June 2016 and June 2019.

Figure 11b shows at the change in payrolled employment counts in each industry through the period of COVID-19 restrictions, from June 2019 to June 2021.

Figure 11a: Change in payrolled employments by industry and nationality, June 2016 to June 2019

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

Between June 2016 and June 2019:

• payrolled employments in health and social work increased by 257,000, the largest increase in counts across all industries. Of this increase, 169,000 were held by UK nationals, 57,000 by non-EU nationals and 31,000 by EU nationals

• public administration and defence experienced the largest decline in payrolled employment counts, falling by 14,000. Payrolled employments held by UK nationals decreased by 23,000. Comparatively, payrolled employments increased by 4,000 for both EU and non-EU nationals

• wholesale and retail experienced the largest decrease in employments held by UK nationals at 74,000. This decrease was offset by a 58,000 increase in payrolled employments held by EU nationals and 20,000 by non-EU nationals

• education also saw a large decrease in the number of payrolled employments held by UK nationals, with a drop of 28,000. As in wholesale and retail, this drop was offset by an increase of 16,000 payrolled employments held by EU nationals and 18,000 held by non-EU nationals

Figure 11b: Change in payrolled employments by industry and nationality, June 2019 to June 2021

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

Between June 2019 and June 2021:

• payrolled employments in the health and social work industry increased by 264,000. Of this increase, 178,000 were held by UK nationals, 76,000 by non-EU nationals and 10,000 by EU nationals

• accommodation and food services saw the largest decrease in payrolled employments at 124,000, largely due to a decrease of 98,000 held by EU nationals

• information and communication and arts and entertainment were the only industries to see a decrease in the number of payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals, decreasing by 7,000 and 3,000 respectively

• wholesale and retail and manufacturing saw the largest decrease in payrolled employments held by UK nationals, decreasing by 117,000 and 99,000 respectively, 3% and 5% decreases

Payrolled employments by industry and nationality as of June 2021

Figure 12: Proportion of all payrolled employments held by EU and non-EU nationals as of June 2021 by industry

Sector	EU nationals	Non-EU nationals
Public admin and defence	2%	3%
Energy production	3%	3%
Mining and quarrying	4%	3%
Education	4%	5%
Arts and entertainment	5%	3%
Real estate	5%	5%
Health and social work	5%	11%
Other service activities	6%	8%
Financial and insurance	6%	7%
Construction	7%	3%
Water supply	7%	2%
Wholesale and retail	7%	6%
Information and communication	8%	11%
Professional services	8%	8%
Manufacturing	12%	4%
Transportation and storage	13%	6%
Accommodation and food	14%	10%
Admin and support services	15%	11%
Agriculture	17%	2%

Source: HM Revenue and Customs – Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (non-seasonally adjusted) and Migrant Worker Scan

In June 2021:

• administrative and support, and accommodation and food service activities were the industries with the highest proportion of payrolled employments attributed to non-UK nationals at 26% and 25% respectively. Public administration and defence was the lowest at 4%

• agriculture, forestry and fishing had the largest proportion of payrolled employments held by EU nationals at 17%, followed by administrative and support services at 15%. Public administration and defence had the lowest proportion of payrolled employments held by EU nationals at 2%

• health and social work, administrative and support services and information and communication were the industries with the highest proportion of payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals, all at 11%. Agriculture, forestry and fishing and water supply, sewerage and waste had the lowest proportions of payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals, both at 2%

Background

This section provides information about the methods and quality assurance steps used to produce this experimental statistics publication.

Purpose of the statistics

These statistics provide a breakdown, by nationality, of all payrolled employments in the UK. A time series going back to July 2014, supported by monthly summary statistics up to June 2021, provide some insights into the non-UK national workforce in the UK for specific industries and geographical areas.

Definitions

Payrolled employment

Payrolled employment counts are a measure of payrolled employee jobs, therefore a single employee might have multiple concurrent employments across different 2007 SIC code groupings. Values for employee jobs are calculated based on the proportion of each month in which the employment was being worked (for example, if an employment started halfway through the month, then it would be counted as half an employment when aggregated up).

This approach aligns with the methodology used in the monthly earnings and employment estimates from PAYE RTI data. Occupational pensions and income from non-payrolled sources such as self-employment are not included.

Pay As You Earn

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is the system employers and pension providers use to take Income Tax and National Insurance contributions before they pay wages or pensions to employees and pensioners. It was introduced in 1944 and is now the way that most employees pay Income Tax in the UK. This publication relates to employments only, not employees or pensioners.

Nationality

For most residents in the UK (including foreign nationals), National Insurance numbers are automatically issued when an individual turns 15 years and 9 months old. This standard registration process does not collate information on nationality.

Individuals who are not allocated a National Insurance number through the standard registration process (for example, those who come from abroad after the age of 16) are required to apply for a National Insurance number through the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) adult National Insurance number registration process. This process records nationality at the point of registration. Subsequent naturalisation (to UK citizenship), other changes in nationality and multiple nationalities are not recorded.

Industry (Standard Industry Classification - SIC)

The industrial sectors in this bulletin are based on the UK Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes, as defined by the ONS. These codes have been determined from both the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) and data from Companies House for each PAYE enterprise.

For some payrolled employments, the high-level 2007 SIC code groupings are unknown. These employments are grouped with the Household and Extraterritorial Organisations Industries.

Region (Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics - NUTS)

Estimates in this publication are available for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the nine English regions, in accordance with the NUTS classification which came into force on 1 January 2015. The Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS) provides a single uniform breakdown to produce regional statistics.

Geographic location for employments is recorded based on where the corresponding individual lives, not where they work. Employments where the information is missing are assigned values based on proportions from historic trends.

Data Sources

Real Time Information (RTI) for Pay As You Earn (PAYE)

The data for this release comes from the HMRC PAYE RTI system. It covers the whole population rather than a sample of people or companies and allows for more detailed estimates of the population.

As individuals who were furloughed as part of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme should still have their employments reported through this system, they should feature in these data and contribute toward the employment statistics for the relevant period.

Migrant Worker Scan (MWS)

The MWS is an extract or subset of data, compiled from the National Insurance and Pay as You Earn Service (NPS) database system. The NPS system is owned by HMRC, with input from DWP. The July 2021 extract of the MWS was used for this analysis.

DWP register post-16 National Insurance numbers through their adult registration process, which usually includes an interview to verify identity and right to residency in the UK. In some circumstances, DWP will allocate National Insurance numbers following a successful application through the Home Office (HO) for a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP) or another ‘fast path’ application process.

In all the above scenarios, DWP will allocate the National Insurance number and enter the information onto the NPS system, including details of their nationality at the point of application.

When Child Benefit is claimed on behalf of foreign national resident children, a National Insurance number is automatically allocated at the age of 15. These individuals will not appear on the MWS.

Methodology

An accompanying article contains more information on the calendarisation and imputation methodologies used in these statistics, alongside comparisons with other earnings and employment statistics.

Statistics in this release are based on people who are employed in at least one job paid through PAYE, and monthly estimates reflect the average number of payrolled employments held by such individuals for each day of the calendar month. This aligns with the methodology used in the monthly RTI statistics.

A seasonal adjustment factor is not applied to these statistics, however the data is subject to seasonality. Drivers of seasonality in the statistics are likely to be linked to seasonality in employment and within certain industries, so care should be taken when comparing estimates on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Coverage

This publication covers all employments in the UK that are administered by employers through the RTI for PAYE service. It does not cover self-employment income or income from other sources such as pensions, property rental and investments. Where individuals have multiple sources of income, only income from employers is included.

These statistics cover the period 1 July 2014 to 30 June 2021. Information for July 2021 onwards is subject to an underlying data issue affecting the recording of nationality onto the administrative systems. This is currently being investigated further, and once a solution is in place, we will look to extend the time series as soon as possible.

Limitations of the data

References to nationality are based on the nationality reported by individuals when they registered for a National Insurance number through the adult National Insurance number registration process, no matter how long ago this took place. Subsequently, individuals may change citizenship to become British nationals. Current citizenship is not shown within these statistics.

The figures reflect adult overseas nationals allocated a National Insurance number through the adult registration process. In addition, there will be a small number of overseas nationals (aged 16 to 19 years) allocated a National Insurance number through the Juvenile Registration scheme. This occurs when the individual has previously been allocated a child registration number. These juvenile cases are not captured by the statistics.

Some individuals with the right to work in the UK will pay tax using a Temporary Reference Number (TRN) rather than a National Insurance number. These are not identified in the MWS and so have been classified as UK nationals. It is possible that multiple TRNs correspond to the same employment, which could inflate counts for UK nationals.

Experimental Statistics status

This release is classed as experimental as the methodologies used to produce the statistics are still in their development phase. This does not mean that the statistics are of low quality, but it does signify that the statistics are new and still being developed. As the methodologies are refined and improved, there may be revisions to these statistics.

More information about Experimental Statistics, including when they should be used and the differences between them and National Statistics, is available.

Pre-release data

HMRC grants pre-release access to official statistics publications, and in accordance with the HMRC policy, 24 hour pre-release access has been granted to a number of people to enable the preparation of a ministerial briefing. Further details, including a list of those granted access, can be found on HMRC’s website.

User engagement

Rather than waiting until the development work has been completed, the statistics are being published now to involve potential users in developing the statistics further. We hope that this encourages users to provide us with their thoughts and suggestions of how useful the statistics are and what can be done to improve them. Comments can be sent by email.

Future publications

The intention is that these new statistics will be updated on an annual basis.

Comparability and related publications

Care needs to be taken when comparing these statistics to other sources. It is important to consider the coverage of these statistics.

Payrolled employments cannot be directly compared with payrolled employees. As payrolled employees can have multiple payrolled employments, payrolled employment counts follow the same trend as payrolled employee counts, but counts will be higher.

Employments from the PAYE system cannot be compared with all jobs. These statistics only include employments from the PAYE system, they do not include employments from non-payrolled sources such as self-employment.

For example, any comparisons to estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) should be treated with caution. Differences between the two sources are possible for reasons including, but not limited to, sampling variability in the LFS, as well as definitional differences in nationality and payrolled employments as outlined above. For more information see Comparison of labour market data sources.

Changes in non-British nationals in the UK labour market during coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and EU Exit periods

The ONS analysis released today (1 March) is based on the same source of PAYE RTI data and the same extract of the MWS but focuses on exploring changes in payrolled employments of non-British nationals in the context of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and EU Exit periods.

Along with supplementary information from other data sources such as the ONS Vacancy Survey and the Business Insights and Conditions Survey, the ONS article explores changing trends over this time for a few industries of note. These include accommodation and food services; agriculture forestry and fishing; construction; and transportation and storage.

HMRC and ONS: Earnings and employee statistics from PAYE RTI

The joint HMRC and ONS release includes counts of payrolled employees at a UK level, on both a Seasonally Adjusted (SA) and Non-Seasonally Adjusted (NSA) basis. This release also includes breakdowns by industry and region. As a payrolled employee might have multiple concurrent payrolled employments, total employee counts are lower than the corresponding employment counts.

The chart below shows the difference between the joint HMRC and ONS release and this release. On a non-seasonally adjusted basis, payrolled employments are at a higher level but follow the same trend as the number of payrolled employees.

HMRC and ONS: Employees from PAYE RTI: Ad hoc estimates of payrolled employees by NUTS1 region and nationality, seasonally adjusted

This joint ONS and HMRC release provides estimates of payrolled employees using PAYE RTI data split by nationality and region, on a Seasonally Adjusted basis. Nationality has been derived using the MWS and represents the nationality of an individual when they applied for a National Insurance number. There may be slight differences in trends caused by specific statistical techniques used in the production of these statistics.

HMRC: Income Tax, NICs, tax credits and Child Benefit statistics for non-UK nationals

This official statistics release provides estimates of Income Tax, National Insurance contributions (NICs), tax credits, and Child Benefit paid by and to non-UK nationals. This analysis is sourced from data on the Survey of Personal Incomes, which is an annual sample of individuals from HMRC administrative data sources: namely PAYE, Self-Assessment and income tax claims.

Statistics published by the ONS

The ONS publish a monthly labour market overview for the UK. This includes estimates of employment, unemployment, economic inactivity and other employment-related statistics. It brings together estimates from multiple sources of data including HMRC PAYE RTI data, the ONS Labour Force Survey and the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey.

DWP: National Insurance number allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK

This official statistics release by the DWP provides quarterly statistics on National Insurance number allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK. These statistics provide a count of foreign nationals registered for a National Insurance number, and their nationality at the time of registering. They do not show the number of foreign nationals who have started work or are currently in work.

ONS: International migration

The ONS publish estimates of the number of people moving in and out of the UK, long term migration, short term migration, and non-UK resident’s data providing a picture of those entering and leaving the UK, covering all lengths of stay.