The majority of the news jobs created in the UK after Brexit were taken by British workers (Image: GETTY)
The Government said the number of EU citizens joining the workforce dropped from 410,000 before the June 2016 poll to less than 35,000 after the UK voted to cut ties with Brussels. However, the number of people in work since the Brexit vote has risen by over one million, taking the UK employment rate to the highest since records began. Employment minister Alok Sharma said EU workers accounted for 45 percent of the UK’s growth in employment between 2014 and 2016 but since the referendum they have made up just five percent.
Mr Sharma said the figures showed British employers are “adjusting” to the changing dynamic in the country’s workforce and are not deterred by the potential risks of creating new jobs amid the uncertain environment.
He told the Daily Telegraph: “Employers are clearly already adjusting to lower immigration from the EU, and it is UK workers who have filled in the gaps – accounting for around nine in ten of new people in work since 2016, compared to half of the people entering work in the two years before.”
The MP for Reading West said “returners” - those who have been
