Brickonomics

The Office of National Statistics has released a paper based on Labour Force Survey data that estimates the number of foreign workers employed in the UK and makes a stab at how many work in various industry sectors, including construction.

Leaving aside the assumptions and definitions the figures work out roughly as such.

There are:
29,438,000 people employed in the UK economy
25,755,000 were born in the UK
3,682,000 were not born in the UK

Of those not born in the UK:
696,000 were born in the EU14 area, the EU minus the UK and the 2004 accession counties
510,000 were born in the A8, the accession countries (ONS left out Cyprus and Malta)
2,475,000 were born in the rest of the world

From the LFS data it is estimated that 12% of the A8 employed work in construction and 4% of the rest of the non-UK born employed.

So from this we can roughly calculate the number of non-UK born employed people working in construction

For the A8 it is between 11.5% and 12.5% of 510,000
And for the rest of the non-UK born it is between 3.5% and 4.5% of 3,682,000-510,000

Multiply and add it all up and we have a range of between 170,000 and 206,000.

Given that there are about 2.2 million people employed in construction, that equates in broad terms to a shade under 1 in 10 workers in construction are foreign.

Assuming I did my maths correctly, does that feel right? To me it seems a bit light.