Official Statistics

UK payrolled employments by nationality, region, industry, age and sex, from July 2014 to December 2024

Published 20 March 2025

Main points

Between December 2023 and December 2024, total payrolled employments in the UK increased by 0.2%, from 32.1 million to 32.2 million. Employments of:

• UK nationals decreased by 241,000 (1%)
• EU nationals decreased by 80,200 (3%)
• non-EU nationals increased by 400,300 (11%)

Payrolled employments of EU nationals: 

• decreased in all regions; the largest decrease was in London, of 34,000 (5%)
• decreased in the majority of sectors; the largest decrease was in accommodation and food service activities, of 23,200 (9%)
• decreased in each of the under 50 age groups and increased in each of the 50 and over age groups; the largest change was a decrease of 72,900 (11%) in the 25 to 34 age group
• decreased for both females and males, by 32,400 (3%) and 47,800 (4%) respectively

Payrolled employments of non-EU nationals: 

• increased in all regions; the largest increase was in London, of 76,900 (6%)
• increased in all sectors; the largest increase was in health and social work, of 121,300 (14%)
• increased in all age groups; the largest increase was in the 25 to 34 age group, of 150,500 (14%)
• increased for both females and males, by 188,200 (11%) and 212,300 (12%) respectively

Between December 2023 and December 2024, median monthly employee pay of:

• UK nationals increased by 5%, from £2,352 to £2,470
• EU nationals increased by 7%, from £2,425 to £2,588
• non-EU nationals increased by 8%, from £2,316 to £2,504

In December 2024:

• of the top 10 non-UK nationalities with the largest number of payrolled employments, 5 were EU and 5 were non-EU nationalities
• Indian nationals held the largest number of employments of any non-UK nationality, at 975,100, making up 15% of total non-UK national employments
• Polish nationals held the second largest number of employments of any non-UK nationality at 505,400, making up 8% of total non-UK employments
• the median monthly employee pay for 8 of the top 10 non-UK nationalities with the most employments was higher than the median for UK nationals

New to this release

Within this publication we have included:

• more specific nationality data; the number of payrolled employments between July 2014 and December 2024 by individual nationality
• median monthly pay for employees between July 2014 and December 2024, by UK, EU and non-EU nationality grouping and by individual nationality

About the data in this release

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

These statistics cover employments in the PAYE system, they do not include employments from non-payrolled sources such as self-employment.

Nationality

In this release, nationality is defined as that reported by individuals when they register for a National Insurance number through the adult National Insurance number registration process. This process records one nationality per individual at the point of registration and is not updated if an individual subsequently changes nationality or citizenship.

Some non-UK nationals in these statistics will have been granted settled status or naturalised as British citizens. Therefore, the non-UK national figures presented in this release will be higher than the true counts. This will have a greater impact on non-EU national counts, as a higher proportion of non-EU nationals gain British citizenship each year (non-EU nationals represented 77% of total citizenship grants in the year ending September 2024.

Further information on settlement and citizenship is provided in the Home Office immigration statistics. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also produce international migration statistics, which provide a picture of all those leaving and entering the UK.

Nationality at the point of National Insurance number registration is the best and most consistent information currently available for these statistics. In line with our rolling process of continuing improvements to our statistics, HMRC are exploring alternative data sources and cross government linkage options to better reflect current nationality in future releases.

These statistics refer to the following 3 main nationality groups:

Nationality grouping	Definition
UK	The 4 countries of the United Kingdom: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
EU	The 27 member states of the EU
Non-EU	All other countries (excluding the UK and EU member states)

The accompanying data tables also provide employments counts by industrial sector and the following EU subgroups: EU14, EU8, EU2 and other EU. More information on these additional subgroups is provided in the background section.

Pay

This release provides estimates of median monthly employee pay. Median monthly pay shows what a person in the middle of all employees would earn each month. The median pay is generally considered to be a more accurate reflection of the ‘average wage’ because it discounts the extremes at either end of the scale.

Pay figures in this release are based on gross pay. Gross pay is what employees earn before taxes, benefits and other payroll deductions are withheld from their wages.

As with the payrolled employment counts provided in the release, pay data for more recent months are subject to small revisions between publications. This is because differences in payment frequencies mean that some payments relating to work done in recent months are yet to be received by HMRC. There are also some circumstances where returns may be submitted late. Rather than wait until all payment returns are available, we produce timelier measures by imputing the values for missing returns. The pay data used in this release was extracted in February 2025. This means that around 1% to 2% of the pay data for December 2024 is imputed.

Seasonal adjustment

The data in this release are not seasonally adjusted. As payrolled employment counts vary by month, change in employment counts should be calculated using the same month across different years.

Official statistics in development

Official statistics in development are official statistics which are undergoing further refinement. They were formerly known as ‘experimental statistics’. Further information on the data sources and the meaning of the term ‘official statistics in development’ is provided in the background section of this release.

Contact details

For queries or feedback, please contact:

• HMRC Migration and the Labour Market team

For press queries, please contact:

• HMRC Press Office

Payrolled employments in the UK by nationality, July 2014 to December 2024

This section of the release provides counts and annual growth rates of payrolled employments in the UK, by nationality, from July 2014 to December 2024.

The underlying data for all charts in this release can be found in the accompanying data tables. The first workbook provides payrolled employments in the UK by nationality, region and industry and the second workbook provides payrolled employments in the UK by nationality, industry, age and sex.

Nationality is that reported at the point of National Insurance number registration. Therefore, the non-UK national figures presented in this release will be higher than the true counts. Some non-UK nationals in these statistics will have been granted settled status or naturalised as British citizens. For more information, see the nationality section of this release.

Employments of UK nationals have returned to pre-pandemic trends, following a sustained dip during 2020

Figure 1a: Payrolled employments of UK nationals, July 2014 to December 2024

Payrolled employments of UK nationals:

• increased by 1.0 million (4%) between July 2014 and December 2019
• decreased by 852,500 (3%) between December 2019 and December 2020
• increased by 1.1 million (4%) between December 2020 and December 2021, returning to pre-pandemic levels
• decreased by 175,000 (1%) between December 2021 and December 2024, to 25.9 million

Employments of non-EU nationals have seen large increases post-2020, while employments of EU nationals have decreased

Figure 1b: Payrolled employments of non-UK nationals, July 2014 to December 2024

Figure 1b shows that between July 2014 and December 2024, payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals increased by 2.8 million (79%).

Between July 2014 and December 2019, payrolled employments of:

• EU nationals increased by 798,500 (43%)
• non-EU nationals increased by 424,200 (25%)

Between December 2019 and December 2020, payrolled employments of:

• EU nationals decreased by 187,600 (7%)
• non-EU nationals increased by 12,200 (1%)

Between December 2020 and December 2024, payrolled employments of:

• EU nationals decreased by 134,000 (5%)
• non-EU nationals increased significantly, by 1.9 million (87%)

Between July 2014 and December 2024, the proportion of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals increased

Date	July 2014	December 2024
UK	88%	80%
EU	6%	7%
Non-EU	6%	12%

Figure 1c: The proportion of payrolled employments in the UK, by nationality, July 2014 and December 2024

Figure 1c shows that between July 2014 and December 2024, the proportion of payrolled employments held by: 

• UK nationals decreased from 88% to 80%
• EU nationals increased from 6% to 7%
• non-EU nationals increased from 6% to 12%

Growth in non-EU employments increased following the pandemic

Figure 2: Percentage change in payrolled employments on the same month in the previous year, by nationality, July 2015 to December 2024

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.

For payrolled employments held by UK nationals, annual growth:

• was stable pre-pandemic, fluctuating between 0% and 2%
• decreased to a low of -3% in January 2021, before increasing and peaking at 4% in March 2022
• decreased to 0% at January 2023 and has since been relatively stable, remaining between -1% and 0%

For payrolled employments held by EU nationals, annual growth:

• was decreasing but positive pre-pandemic
• decreased to a low of -8% in February 2021, before increasing and peaking at 2% in March 2022
• decreased to -3% in September 2023 and has been relatively stable since then, remaining between -4% and -3%

For payrolled employments held by non-EU nationals, annual growth:

• was steadily increasing pre-pandemic
• did not become negative during the pandemic period, decreasing to a low of 0% in February 2021
• peaked at 23% in June 2023 and has since decreased, to 11% by December 2024

Median monthly employee pay in the UK by nationality, July 2014 to December 2024

This section of the release provides median monthly pay for employees in the UK, by nationality, from July 2014 to December 2024.

EU nationals had the lowest median pay of the 3 nationality groups in July 2014, by December 2024 they had the highest

Figure 3: Median monthly pay of payrolled employees, July 2014 to December 2024

Median monthly employee pay of UK nationals:

• was £1,612 in July 2014, the highest of the 3 nationality groups
• increased steadily pre pandemic, reaching £1,853 by December 2019
• fell slightly in the early months of the pandemic
• has been growing at a faster rate post pandemic period and was £2,470 in December 2024, the lowest pay of the 3 nationality groups

Median monthly employee pay of EU nationals:

• was £1,453 in July 2014, the lowest of the 3 nationality groups
• increased steadily pre pandemic, reaching £1,819 by December 2019
• fell slightly in the early months of the pandemic
• has been growing at a faster rate post pandemic period and was £2,588 in December 2024, the highest pay of the 3 nationality groups

Median monthly employee pay of non-EU nationals:

• was £1,603 in July 2014
• increased steadily pre pandemic, reaching £1,943 by December 2019
• fell slightly in the early months of the pandemic, however unlike pay for UK and EU nationals, annual growth remained positive
• has been growing at a faster rate post pandemic period and was £2,504 in December 2024

Payrolled employments by individual nationality

This section of the release provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK by individual nationality and median monthly pay for employees in the UK by individual nationality, from July 2014 to December 2024.

Nationality is that reported at the point of National Insurance number registration. This means that the counts provided below will be higher than ‘true’ values, as some individuals will have subsequently been granted settled status or naturalised as British citizens. For more information, see the nationality section of this release.

Indian nationals held the largest number of employments of any non-UK individual nationality in December 2024

Figure 4: Top 10 non-UK nationalities with the largest number of employments in December 2024

In December 2024:

• of the top 10 non-UK nationalities with the largest number of employments, 5 were EU and 5 were non-EU nationalities
• payrolled employments held by the top 10 non-UK nationalities totalled 3.5 million, making up 55% of all non-UK national employments
• Indian nationals held the largest number of employments of any non-UK individual nationality, at 975,100, making up 15% of total non-UK national employments
• Polish nationals held the second largest number of employments of any non-UK individual nationality at 505,400, 8% of total non-UK national employments

Median monthly pay for 8 of the top 10 non-UK nationalities with the most employments was higher than median pay for UK nationals in December 2024

Figure 5: Median monthly employee pay, for the top 10 non-UK nationalities with the largest number of employments in December 2024

In December 2024, of the top 10 non-UK nationalities with the most employments:

• Filipino nationals had the highest median monthly employee pay, at £3,089
• Italian and Spanish nationals had the second and third highest median monthly employee pay, at £2,877 and £2,740 respectively
• only Romanian and Pakistani nationals had lower median monthly employee pay than UK nationals, at £2,327 and £1,904 respectively

Employment counts of Indian nationals saw the largest change between December 2023 and December 2024

Figure 6: Top 10 non-UK nationalities with the largest absolute change in payrolled employments between December 2023 and December 2024

Between December 2023 and December 2024:

• employments of Indian nationals had the largest increase, of 99,100 (11%)
• employments of Polish nationals had the largest decrease, of 20,200 (4%)
• of the top 10 nationalities with the largest absolute changes in payrolled employment counts, 2 were EU nationalities and 8 were non-EU nationalities. The 2 EU nationalities saw decreases whereas all 8 of the non-EU nationalities saw increases in payrolled employment counts

Payrolled employments by nationality and age group

This section of the release provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK by nationality and age group.

The majority of payrolled employments were held by 25-to-64-year olds in December 2024

Figure 7: Payrolled employments by nationality and age group, December 2024

In December 2024, 35- to 49-year-olds held the largest number of payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals, at 7.7 million employments
• EU nationals, at 1.2 million employments
• non-EU nationals, at 1.7 million employments

The age group with the second largest number of payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals was the 50 to 64 age group, at 7.4 million employments
• EU and non-EU nationals was the 25 to 34 age group, at 571,600 and 1.2 million employments respectively

Employments of non-EU nationals increased in all age groups between December 2023 and December 2024

Figure 8: Change in payrolled employments by nationality and age group between December 2023 and December 2024

Between December 2023 and December 2024, payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals aged 65 and over increased by 38,200 (3%), however employments in all other age groups decreased. The largest decrease, of 110,400 (1%) was seen in the 50 to 64 age group
• EU nationals decreased in each of the under 50 age groups, with the largest decrease seen in 25- to 34-year-olds, of 72,900 (11%). Comparatively, payrolled employments held by EU nationals increased in the 50 to 64 and 65 and over age groups
• non-EU nationals increased in all age groups, the largest increase was of 150,500 (14%), in 25- to 34-year-olds

Payrolled employments by nationality and sex

This section of the release provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK by nationality and sex.

In December 2024, 51% of payrolled employments in the UK were held by females.

By nationality group, payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals were also 51% female
• EU nationals were 52% female
• non-EU nationals were 49% female

Between December 2023 and December 2024, payrolled employments of female and male:

• UK nationals decreased by 95,500 (1%) and 135,800 (1%) respectively
• EU nationals decreased by 32,400 (3%) and 47,800 (4%) respectively
• non-EU nationals increased by 188,200 (11%) and 212,300 (12%) respectively

Payrolled employments by nationality and region

This section of the release provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK by nationality and region.

Geographic location for payrolled employments is recorded based on where the corresponding individual lives, not where they work. Where the information is missing, employments have been assigned values proportionally, based on historic trends.

London had the highest number of non-UK national employments in December 2024

Figure 9: Payrolled employments by nationality and region, December 2024

In December 2024, payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals were highest in the South East, at 3.7 million and lowest in Northern Ireland, at 760,500
• EU nationals were highest in London, at 707,600 and lowest in the North East, at 28,400
• non-EU nationals were highest in London, at 1.3 million and lowest in Northern Ireland, at 43,500
• non-UK nationals made up the highest proportion of total employments in London, at 42%, and the lowest proportion in Wales and the North East, both at 10%

Employments of non-EU nationals increased in all regions of the UK between December 2023 and December 2024

Figure 10: Change in payrolled employments by nationality and region between December 2023 and December 2024

Between December 2023 and December 2024, payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals decreased in all regions other than Northern Ireland, where there was an increase of 2,900 (0.4%). The largest decrease was in London, of 34,800 (1%)
• EU nationals decreased in all regions. The smallest decrease was in the North East, of 600 (2%) and the largest decrease was in London, of 34,000 (5%)
• non-EU nationals increased in all regions. The smallest increase was in Northern Ireland, of 7,400 (20%) and the largest increase was in London, of 76,900 (6%)

Payrolled employments by nationality and industrial sector

This section of the release provides counts of payrolled employments in the UK by nationality and industrial sector (SIC2007).

Health and social work had both the highest number of total employments and the highest number of non-UK national employments in December 2024

Figure 11: Payrolled employments by nationality, top 10 largest sectors, December 2024

Of the top 10 sectors in December 2024, payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals were highest in wholesale and retail, at 3.8 million and lowest in transportation and storage, at 1.1 million
• EU nationals were highest in administrative and support services, at 332,200 and lowest in public administration and defence, at 34,000
• non-EU nationals were highest in health and social work, at 975,900 and lowest in public administration and defence, at 65,500
• non-UK nationals made up the highest proportion of total employments in administrative and support services, at 33%, and the lowest proportion in public administration and defence, at 6%

Employments of non-EU nationals increased in all sectors between December 2023 and December 2024

Figure 12: Change in payrolled employments by nationality, top 10 largest sectors, between December 2023 and December 2024

In the top 10 largest sectors, between December 2023 and December 2024, payrolled employments of:

• UK nationals decreased in all sectors other than health and social work, where there was an increase of 5,800 (0.2%). The largest decrease was in wholesale and retail, of 93,700 (2%)
• EU nationals decreased in most sectors, with the largest decrease seen in accommodation and food service activities, of 23,200 (9%). The largest increase was in public administration and defence, of 1,600 (5%)
• non-EU nationals increased in all sectors. The smallest increase was in professional, scientific and technical, of 5,600 (2%) and the largest increase was in health and social work, of 121,300 (14%)

Background

This section provides information about the methodology and quality assurance steps used in the production of this publication.

Limitations of the data

These statistics cover all UK employments in the UK administered by employers through the PAYE Real Time Information service in the period 1 July 2014 to 31 December 2024. Employments paid through other sources of income such as self-employment are not included.

These data include imputation for payments not yet received by HMRC which would relate to the respective work periods. The fraction of imputed figures is very small, but this does mean that more recent months are prone to revisions in future publications as payments related to these months continue to be received.

In this release, nationality is defined as that reported by individuals when they register for a National Insurance number through the adult National Insurance number registration process. This process records one nationality per individual at the point of registration and is not updated if an individual subsequently changes nationality or citizenship.

Some non-UK nationals in these statistics will have been granted settled status or naturalised as British citizens. Therefore, the non-UK national figures presented in this release are higher than true counts.

These figures reflect adult overseas nationals allocated a National Insurance number through the adult registration process. There will be a small number of overseas nationals (aged 16 to 19 years) allocated a National Insurance number through the juvenile registration process. This occurs when the individual has previously been allocated a child reference number. These juvenile cases are not captured by these statistics and these individuals will be classified as UK nationals.

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 individuals are not identified in the MWS and so have been classified as UK nationals. This could inflate counts for UK nationals.

Comparability and related publications

Care needs to be taken when comparing these statistics to other sources.

Payrolled employments cannot be directly compared with payrolled employees. Payrolled employees can have multiple payrolled employments, therefore payrolled employment counts should follow similar trends to payrolled employee counts, but counts will be higher.

For future publications, we continue to explore the possibility of providing a greater emphasis on the number of employees rather than employments, as detailed in the consultation on changes to HMRC statistics publications 2025.

The payrolled employment counts provided in these statistics do not capture all jobs in the UK. These statistics only include employments from the PAYE system, they do not include employments from non-payrolled sources such as self-employment.

Any comparisons to estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) should be treated with caution. Differences between the 2 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.

HMRC and ONS: Earnings and employment from PAYE RTI statistics

The joint HMRC and ONS earnings and employment from PAYE RTI statistics provide counts of payrolled employees at a UK level, on both a seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted basis. This release also includes breakdowns by industrial sector 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 (NSA) basis, payrolled employments are at a higher level but follow similar trends to the number of payrolled employees.

On a non-seasonally adjusted (NSA) basis, payrolled employments are at a higher level than payrolled employees, following similar trends

Figure 13: Payrolled employments and payrolled employees, non-seasonally adjusted (NSA), July 2014 to December 2024

ONS: Labour market overview

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 (LFS) and the Monthly Wages and Salaries Survey.

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

The DWP quarterly statistics on National Insurance number allocations to adult overseas nationals entering the UK 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 international migration statistics provide 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.

Definitions

Payrolled employment

Payrolled employment counts are a measure of payrolled employee jobs. A single employee may 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.

Pay As You Earn

Pay As You Earn (PAYE) is the system that 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.

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 or who have never been part of a Child Benefit or Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) claim) 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.

In these statistics, we refer to 3 main nationality groups: UK, EU and non-EU.

The accompanying data tables also provide total payrolled employment counts by industrial sector and further EU subgroups: EU14, EU8, EU2 and other EU.

Nationality grouping	Definition
UK	The 4 countries of the United Kingdom: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
EU	The 27 member states of the EU
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 member states

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.

Large enterprises, covering multiple SIC codes are classified into a single SIC code based on the relative number of employees in each SIC code. Changes to the proportion of employees across SIC codes in large enterprises can result in the enterprise being reclassified to a different SIC code. As we link to the most recent quarterly version of the IDBR at the enterprise level, where an employer has been reclassified into a different SIC code, the most recent code is applied across the whole of the time series that is updated monthly.

This means that sector level time series represent the current employers classified in each sector and are less likely to be distorted by employers being reclassified at the enterprise level due to small changes at the lower unit level. However, it also means that these time series may be revised between publications and, in the historical sections of the time series, employers are classified in sectors that they weren’t classified in at that point in time.

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 9 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 (CJRS) 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 a quarterly 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 January 2024 extract of the MWS was used for this analysis.

DWP currently register post-16 National Insurance numbers through their adult registration process, which usually includes checks to verify identity and right to work 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 send the information to the NPS system, including details of their nationality at the point of application.

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.

Official statistics in development

Official statistics in development are official statistics that are undergoing further refinement. They were formerly known as ‘experimental statistics’.

These statistics use the same underlying data and methodology as the joint HMRC and ONS official statistics publication on earnings and employment from Pay As You Earn Real Time Information (PAYE RTI).

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). The OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards.

Alternatively, you can contact the OSR by email or via the OSR website.

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 pages on GOV.UK.