As part of its election campaign, the government is quick to trot out the 40,000 new jobs it has created in the private sector over the past four years.

But new figures from the national confederation of Danish employers, Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening (DA), reveal that the vast majority of the new jobs have gone to foreigners.

“It’s incredibly positive that we’ve been able to attract labour from our neighbours, but it’s very negative that we’ve been unable to change the employment frequency for the Danish citizens during this time,” DA head Jørn Neegaard Larsen told Børsen business newspaper.

READ MORE: Copenhagen can’t do without foreign workers

Unions calm
DA’s figures – which stem from national stats keeper Danmarks Statistik and labour market site Jobindsats – should be taken with a grain of salt, according to Harald Børting, the head of trade union confederation LO.

LO contends that more foreign workers in Denmark is a good development, as long as they are afforded Danish wages and working conditions.

“We need to remember that the demographic development means fewer Danes, so we should count on more foreigners moving into our labour market,” Børting told TV2 News.