Summary of key points


  • The introduction of lockdown measures in March 2020 coincided with decreases in the number of payrolled employments in London, particularly for employments held by EU nationals.

  • By June 2021, there were 770,000 payrolled employments held by EU nationals living in the capital and 857,000 held by non-EU (and non-UK) nationals.

  • This accounted for around 18% and 20% of total employments in London - for both EU and non-EU workers, these shares were far higher than for other UK regions.


Introduction


HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has published new statistics on payrolled employments in the UK by region, industry and nationality, from July 2014 to June 2021. This article explores some of the key trends for London.

Please note, the payrolled employment counts used in this article cannot be:

  • directly compared with payrolled employee numbers - payrolled employees can have multiple payrolled employments, so employment counts follow the same trend as employee counts, but will be higher.

  • directly compared with total jobs numbers - these statistics only include employments from the PAYE system, they do not include employments from non-payrolled sources such as self-employment.

  • used as a count of monthly or annual migration to the UK or London, or to show the number of non-UK nationals who are currently living in the UK or London.

Nationality breakdowns are determined using HMRC’s Migrant Worker Scan (MWS). Nationality is reported by individuals when they register for a National Insurance number and may change following registration.

The data covers the period from June 2014 to June 2021 and has not been seasonally adjusted. For more information, see the HMRC release.


Overview in London


The number of payrolled employments held by non-UK nationals living in London was generally increasing between 2014 and 2020, even following the EU exit vote. However, the introduction of coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown measures coincided with a decline in payrolled employments for all nationality groups.

  • The number of employments held by EU workers increased from 622,000 in July 2014 to 851,000 in February 2020, before falling to 770,000 in June 2021.
  • The number of employments held by non-EU workers* over the same period was 762,000 (July 2014), 859,000 (February 2020), and 857,000 (June 2021).

The introduction of lockdown measures in March 2020 had a particular impact on the count of payrolled employments held by EU nationals living in the capital. Between February 2020 and February 2021:

  • The overall count of payrolled employments held by employees living in London (including UK nationals) decreased by 6.2%.
  • The number of employments held by EU and non-EU workers decreased by 12.2% and 3.8%, respectively.

*Note: The count of non-EU employments include those held by workers from countries part of the EEA but not the EU.

Total employment counts

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

Note: Estimates are based on where employees live. Vertical line indicates beginning of lockdowns in March 2020.

Nationality shares

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

Note: Estimates are based on where employees live. Vertical line indicates beginning of lockdowns in March 2020.

Regional comparisons


Notwithsanding the impacts of the pandemic, London still has a relatively large population of non-UK workers compared to other UK regions and countries.

By June 2021, 17.9% of payrolled employments in London were held by EU nationals and 20.0% were held by non-EU nationals. In both cases, this was higher than the UK average (8.1% and 7.3%, respectively).

These differences are even more pronounced within certain industries, including for Hospitality and Construction. In June 2021:

  • The share of payrolled employments held by non-UK workers in Hospitality was 58.6% in London, more than double the UK share of 24.7%.
  • The share of payrolled employments held by non-UK workers in Construction was 43.3% in London, four times the UK average of 10.2%.

Regional comparison, overall

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

Note: Estimates are based on where employees live.

Regional comparison, Hospitality

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

Note: Estimates are based on where employees live.

Regional comparison, Construction

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

Note: Estimates are based on where employees live.