National Bank of Denmark analysis finds people of foreign origin make up 14 per cent of employment and foreign labour increasingly fills knowledge-intensive jobs

The National Bank of Denmark has published an analysis of foreign labour in Denmark, finding that people of foreign origin accounted for around 14 per cent of employment in 2024 and that foreign workers are increasingly filling highly paid, knowledge-intensive roles rather than mainly low-paid manual jobs. The analysis also concludes that foreign labour reacts to Danish cyclical conditions, which can help ease wage and price pressures when labour demand strengthens. The share of employed people of foreign origin rose from around 3 per cent in 1995 to just over 14 per cent in 2024, and about half had lived in Denmark for less than 10 years. For foreign labour defined by the Bank as employees of foreign origin resident for less than 10 years, the share in jobs requiring the highest level of knowledge rose from just under 9 per cent in 1995 to almost one quarter in 2024, although foreign workers remain overrepresented in manual work and in industries such as agriculture, hotels and restaurants, and cleaning. Compared with the EU overall, Denmark’s foreign workforce is generally younger, more highly educated, has a larger EU-born share, and is more concentrated in knowledge-intensive occupations and welfare sectors. Model estimates indicate that a Denmark-specific shock raising GDP by 1 per cent would lift foreign labour by about 0.6 per cent over 2 to 4 years, equivalent to roughly 1,700 people.