New official statistics today revealing there are currently a record number of EU citizens working in the UK:
The Times wrote:The number of EU citizens working in Britain rose to a record high in the year after the Brexit referendum, official figures reveal.
Despite fears of a so-called Brexodus, 2.37 million migrants from EU states were employed between July and September, an increase of 112,000 on the same period last year. After an initial drop in the three months after the vote in June 2016, the number of EU citizens employed has risen in every quarter this year.
This month the National Farmers' Union said that fruit and vegetables were being left to rot because of a shortage of seasonal workers, suggesting that more were needed for unskilled roles. Today's figures from the ONS suggest however that with full employment in Britain there remains strong demand for migrant workers.
Numbers from the 14 western EU countries, including France, Italy and Germany, rose by 45,000 to 987,000 in the year after the referendum. The number of Romanians and Bulgarians jumped by almost 90,000 to 347,000.
Those from eight other eastern European states known as the EU8 fell by 19,000 to just over 1 million. Despite the fall there are now more citizens of Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovinia working in Britain than shortly before the referendum.
Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of Migration Watch UK, which campaigns for lower immigration, said: "The figures show that prediction of a Brexodus - an outflow of EU workers - are nonsense. In fact there has been an increase in the last year. Part of this is the inflow of Romanians and Bulgarians who go into low paid work."
Overall the number of people in employment has fallen for the first time in a year, the ONS figures showed, raising questions about the resilience of the labour market but providing a welcome boost to productivity.