It seems that only 40% - or less - of front office people working in the City are British

Yesterday, the Office of National Statistics produced some statistics. Among other things, they reflected the large number of non-British workers occupying 'high skill' jobs in London.

As noted by the Evening Standard, 33% of these high-skilled jobs are occupied by people who aren't British. 66% are occupied by 'foreigners.'

We've been here before. In March, BarCap divulged that 30% of its staff weren't British, prompting discussion of the inadequacies of the British education system.

This time, however, we've done a deeper dive into the exogenous worker issue. And we have concluded this: in front office positions in the City, British people are a significant minority.

Blackstone, for example, employs around 79 people in London, of whom only 27, or 34% appear to be British. Far more are American, or American-educated.

Similarly, a random sample of 30 front office employees at Goldman Sachs in London suggests only 12, or 40% are British nationals.

This is hardly surprising. Recent research from High Fliers suggested there were 2,052 aspiring investment bankers at top UK universities last year. But investment banks in the UK hire around 2,300 graduates annually - even all the British graduates were accepted, which they're not, banks would still need to look overseas.

What this means for the UK Treasury

The predominance of overseas nationals in front office financial services positions has clear implications for the UK government and its deficit troubles.

Last year, PricewaterhouseCoopers estimated that the average amount of 'employment tax' paid by each person in the City was 40k on a salary of 71.2k.

The CEBR estimates that there are around 325,000 people working in 'City jobs.' If 33% of these jobs go to non-Britons, it suggests the total employment tax take from non-British City workers is 4.3bn.

Given that non-British workers are in a majority in high paid front office jobs, their true tax contribution is likely to be substantially higher.

The implication? The British government is deriving a large amount of tax revenue from foreign nationals with few ties to the UK. In the current circumstances, it probably needs to keep them happy.