Daily Mail headline ignores ONS over 'new jobs' for foreign workers

For the first time yesterday, the Office for National Statistics published additional guidance on statistics about workers' nationality, alongside its data on employment.

After the frequent stories using data on employment levels by nationality to suggest how many 'new jobs' went to foreigners, yesterday's bulletin contained this explanation: "The estimates relate to the number of people in employment rather than the number of jobs. These statistics have sometimes been incorrectly interpreted as indicating the proportion of new jobs that are taken by foreign migrants."

So what was the front page splash of today's Daily Mail?

In fairness to the Mail the actual article describes the statistics correctly, it is just the headline that falls foul of the new ONS explanation.

The article itself also explains that the non-UK born figure also includes British nationals born abroad, and that the employment rate among UK born people is slightly higher than that for those born outside the UK.

Nevertheless we will be making a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission, based on the new guidance from the Office for National Statisitcs.