Eastern and central European migrants have started to move up the jobs chain in the United Kingdom and are occupying more professional positions, shows data of the Home Office, as cited by the Financial Times.

Fruit and vegetable growers warned this week that they were facing a struggle to attract sufficient eastern and central Europeans to harvest their crops because A8 workers had become more choosy about the work they undertook.

According to the Home Office the hospitality industry has accounted for 19 per cent of jobs filled by workers from the A8 countries - the eight eastern and central European nations of the European Union, and agriculture 11 per cent, since 2004.

Some 41 per cent of registered workers applied to work in administration, business or management posts during the latest quarter. This compared with 25 per cent three years ago when Britain opened its job market to A8 workers.

According to the Home Office, the number of workers applying to work in the UK from the A8 countries dipped to 49,500 during the three months to the end of June.

This was almost 2,400 fewer than in the previous three months and almost 7,000 fewer than in the corresponding period last year. The figures record only those registering to work in the UK and do not take account of migrants who have returned home.

David Davis, shadow home secretary, claimed the latest figures showed the immigration system was "out of control". He said numbers of migrants arriving from eastern and central Europe had risen by almost 60,000 in the latest quarter, if Bulgarian and Romanian workers were included.

Bulgarians and Romanians, unlike other EU members, have been given only limited access to British jobs. Mr Davis said the latest figures reinforced Conservative arguments that even tougher restrictions should have been imposed.

He said the government's original estimate that only 13,000 migrants a year would come from A8 countries had been blown out of the water.

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