Foreigners hold one in 10 jobs

A rapid increase in the number of foreign workers is being credited with helping to extend the country's economic boom, according to a recent article in Copenhagen Post

A 20 percent increase in the number of foreigners working in Denmark from 2006 to 2007 means that nearly one in 10 jobs are now filled by a non-Dane, according to a recent study by the Confederation of Danish Employers (DA), Politiken newspaper reports.

DA calculates that 250,000 of the country's 2.8 million workers come from abroad.

The contributions of foreign workers, according to Jørn Neergaard Larsen, the president of DA, has helped to keep the country's economic expansion alive, despite a tight labour market.

'If we didn't recruit employees from abroad, we'd be facing wage pressures and would be well on our way to losing our competitiveness and decreasing levels of social welfare,' Larsen said.

The strongest growth was in the number of employees from German and Polish companies who are sent to Denmark to work, typically on construction projects. DA calculates that the number of such workers has risen to 60,000 from 26,400 last year.

Adding to the growth is an increase in the number of workers commuting over the German and Swedish borders. Such workers now fill 23,000 jobs - 10,000 more than in 2006.

DA called the tight labour market 'anything but a short-term problem', and expects that the trend will be exacerbated by an increasingly ageing population.

Labour unions expressed their concerned that foreign workers stationed here by companies in their home countries are being paid less than their Danish counterparts.