Because of rising unemployment, British-born workers are having to seek low-paid and low-status jobs that have become the preserve of immigrant workers, a report says today.

With unemployment expected to top two million this week, competition for jobs is expected to become fiercer because there is little evidence that East Europeans are returning home because of the economic downturn.

The report will fuel the row over Gordon Brown’s promise of “British jobs for British workers”, because it found evidence of recruitment agencies in one city operating a immigrants-only policy — effectively freezing local people out of the chance to work in factories.

It says that employers prefer East Europeans because they are better motivated, more reliable, punctual and have low levels of absenteeism.

Dermot Finch, director of the research institute Centre for Cities, which published the report, said: “Workers from Eastern Europe have filled skills shortages and helped businesses grow. But the recession is now starting to change the dynamic between the East European migrants and local labour markets.”

The report looked at the impact of Eastern European immigrants on Hull and Bristol. Mr Finch said: “In cities like Hull and Bristol unemployment is rising and vacancies are falling but we are not yet seeing a mass exodus of migrant workers. Migrants and the recently unemployed are now competing for fewer jobs, and previously ‘hard to fill jobs’ are now in demand.”

In January there were 22 people on jobseeker’s allowance for every job vacancy in Hull and five on the allowance for every vacancy in Bristol.

An analysis by the Trade Union Congress suggests that on average there are ten job seekers for every vacancy advertised — but in an area of the South East, that rate rises to 60 job seekers for every vacancy. “These shocking figures blow out of the water the Government’s claim that there are plenty of jobs available for people who are prepared to look,” said Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC.

To cope with demand at Jobcentres, the Government has drafted in civil servants who were working on child maintenance and disability claims.

The Centre for Cities report says that there has been no exodus of migrants in Hull and Bristol since the start of the economic downturn.

It suggests that Britain will remain attractive to immigrants because of the differential in wage rates, standard of living and opportunities between Britain and the East European states.

“Migrants perceived their flexibility to work in any job meant they were less likely to be unemployed relative to the local workforce,” the report says.

Employers in Bristol reported a rise in the number of local people applying for jobs traditionally filled by immigrants. The report also suggests workers in Hull were unable to compete for jobs in the food-processing industry because recruitment agencies “unofficially” dealt with immigrants only. “Many were unofficially Polish only. Unless you were Eastern European, recruitment agencies were unlikely to put you on their books.”

Home Office figures show that in the final three months of last year there were 29,000 applications to work in Britain by immigrants from Poland, the Czech Republic and the other six former communist states, a fall of 53,000 over the same period in 2007 and a drop of 63,000 on 2006. Although the numbers registering have fallen there are no figures on how many East Europeans are going home, as the UK does not count the number of people leaving the country.

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