Romania and Bulgaria numbers up 15% in one year
The number of Romanians and Bulgarians working in the UK has risen by 15% year-on-year, official figures have revealed.
Some 172,000 people from the two eastern European countries were working in Britain in the last three months of 2014, up 22,000 on the same period the previous year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
However, the number fell 9% quarter-on-quarter from 189,000 between July and September last year.
Employment curbs were lifted for citizens of the so-called A2 countries on January 1, prompting warnings from the likes of Ukip of a surge of immigration.
Why we need immigration
The total number of workers in Britain from the European Union rose to 1.9 million in the same period from 1.7 million, a rise of 200,000 or 10.5%.
Unemployment rates were 6.4% in Romania and 10.8% in Bulgaria at the end of January, according to Eurostat. The comparable figure for the UK was 5.9%.
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