It is not clear why the Office for National Statistics has chosen to release jobs data by UK-born and non UK-born citizens for the first time. But it has and here is the text.

“Employment of all workers, both UK and non-UK born, fell by 59,000 in the 12 months to October-December 2008, a 0.2 per cent, a reduction on the October-December 2007 estimate.

“In the 12 months to October-December 2008, employment of UK-born workers fell by 278,000 to 25.6 million. In the same period, employment of non-UK born workers rose by 214,000 to 3.8 million.

“Analysis by nationality shows a fall in employment of UK nationals by 234,000 to 27.0 million; employment of non-UK nationals rose by 175,000 to 2.4 million.”

The figures - published in this press release - come on the day that unemployment nudged even closer to the 2m mark.

As my colleague Andrew Taylor points out in Thursday’s FT, there will be those within Labour and Whitehall who think this is an attempt to embarrass Gordon Brown over his “British Jobs for British Workers” claim.

February 12, 2009 12:24am in Economy, Labour | Comment