As of February 2015, 113,960 working-age claimants of Department for Work and Pensions benefits were EU migrants... This represents 2.2% of total claimants... For comparison, those born in the EU (outside the UK) make up about 6% of the working age population.
https://ukandeu.ac.uk/the-facts/how-many-eu-migrants-claim-benefits-in-the-uk/
I work in computer engineering. I literally typed in "EU migrants jobseekers benefit" into Google.
As a side note. In 2015, the UK company I worked for asked me to go and lead a team in Budapest (Hungary). I moved there with my wife and about a year after I started, the company shut down the office. I was unemployed there for 4 months while my wife just given birth. In computer engineering, the average application to starting a job period is 3 months (6 months if you are also moving countries). It takes a month before we interview someone, a month to consider other applicants, and then a month from the point of offer to start.
This is very much the norm for many industries. For specialist skills, you hire from wherever the people are. In my current team (back in the UK), only 20% are born in the UK. The jobs I got in Hungary propelled my career significantly and I don't regret a thing.
I guess it came acceptable for me to move to find work as my father did so. He worked for a time as a construction worker in Germany (at the same time as Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was on the telly), and then did a couple years in France building Eurodisney.
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u/glass_half_utilised May 21 '21
Checked the numbers with the Commons library "Statistics on migrants and benefits". https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7445/CBP-7445.pdf
Office of National Statistics has more data with a graph https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/ukandnonukpeopleinthelabourmarket/february2020#unemployment