British nationals accounted for one fifth of all jobs added to the payroll since 2014, with the vast majority going to workers from outside the EU, new analysis suggests.
Some 734,000 British nationals were added to HMRC’s pay-as-you-earn (Paye) system – which automatically deducts tax from workers’ monthly pay packet – between 2014 and the end of 2025, according to analysis by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
By comparison, 2.5 million non-EU nationals were added to the system in the same time period, as well as 408,000 EU nationals, research from the centre-right think tank’s State of Dependency report suggests.
The 250-page document warns that successive governments have used low-skilled migration to plug gaps in the jobs market, while more British workers have been left workless and turned to the benefits system for financial support.
The trend has become more pronounced since 2020, the think tank said.
The number of jobs held by British nationals across nine of the 12 regions and nations of the UK have fallen between the start of the decade and 2025, its analysis said, with non-EU migrants making up the majority of the difference.
In Scotland for example, the number of British employees registered via Paye have fallen by 53,000 since 2020, while more than 153,000 non-EU nationals have been added to the payroll.
In London over the same period, the number of UK nationals on Paye fell by 26,500, and the number of non-EU nationals rose by 407,000.
While there appears to be a growing number of non-EU nationals employed across the UK, British nationals still make up the vast bulk of Paye registered workers, according to Government data.
Some 25.6 million Britons were registered through the system as of December 2025, out of a total of 32 million workers on the payroll, according to statistics released by HMRC.
The CSJ warned that while immigration over the past two decades had helped to boost overall economic growth, this had masked slower GDP growth per person in the UK.
Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative former work and pensions secretary who chaired the CSJ’s investigation, said: “The report shows that this crisis extends beyond the benefit system.
“The truth is that successive governments have used welfare over decades to compensate parts of the country for economic failure rather than creating the conditions for prosperity.
“Compounding this, ministers have repeatedly pulled the easy lever of immigration rather than providing a better deal for left behind communities.
“Welfare reform, immigration and regional growth must now be treated as parts of the same challenge.”