This is a big enough issue to affect the whole economy.

“Without effective action to bring more people back into the workforce, sustained economic growth will be all but impossible,” she says.

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, has promised action, sounding tough on benefits claimants.

“Today’s figures show there is more to do in supporting people into employment because if you can work, you should work,” she says.

“This will be part of my Budget later in the year where I will be making difficult decisions on spending, welfare and tax to fix the foundations of our economy so we can rebuild Britain and make every part of our country better off”.

Although the net fall in employment and rise in inactivity among UK-born workers appears to almost match, it is not simply a matter of the best part of a million people moving from one status to the other and staying there.

Every year some retire, some move abroad, new workers enter the jobs market from school and university, Britons working or travelling abroad return home, so there is plenty of churn in the numbers.

Similarly the rise in the number of migrants in work in the UK closely matches the drop in British-born employment. That does not mean those migrants are doing precisely the same jobs that previously-employed Britons held – individuals move, change jobs and climb the career ladder, while bosses’s needs and requirements change, so some jobs are created and others disappear over time.

But in terms of an overall economic pattern, the picture is clear. Fewer British-born people are working. And foreign-born labour is filling the gap.

Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, says it employers have little option but to look overseas.

“Someone who is willing to change country to work is highly motivated to work – they are coming in and engaging in the job search,” he says.