In an article published in Reuters last week, they reported there has been a significant increase in job searches on the jobs platform Indeed from non-EU countries, including Nigeria, India, Pakistan and South Africa, whereas searches from EU countries were about the same as post-Brexit sitting around 1.4%. Searches from non-EU countries had doubled to around 4.1% of searches and these were in both the senior more technical roles as well as the low-skilled categories.

The Bank of England remains focused on reducing inflation and one of the sticking points remains the pressure on wages due to the acute labour shortages. Labour shortages are not a UK problem, there are many other larger European countries who are struggling to fill vacancies and are reforming immigration rules to attract non-EU workers.

This summer Germany began the process of the relaxation of the immigration laws, which should begin to take effect in November 2023 and then again in Spring 24. Germany saw vacancies of 1.74 million last summer, and a survey by a Munich-based research institute found that almost half of German businesses were struggling to fill vacancies. Germany is not alone in struggling to attract and retain staff. Labour shortages exist right across Europe with a quarter of the  25m SMEs in Europe experiencing issues in recruiting qualified and experienced managers.

Many of the European countries are encouraging  Students to stay after their study program finishes. Denmark recently announced there is a 3-year window to apply for a job after a university course is completed.

Net migration was unusually high in 2022, some of this can be accounted for by the War in Ukraine and the challenges faced in Hong Kong, the numbers are estimated to be as high as 606,000 net migration. So far the Health Care system has been the main benefactor of these new non-eu workers entering the UK. The largest number has come from Student Visas with 316,000 (student and dependent family).

Apparently, it is very difficult to measure and track the impact of net migration on jobs in the UK, with all studies having a significant measurement error, the only real way to track for employers is on job applications and for us temporary vacancies being filled and refilled.

If you are looking for help recruiting from a team who understand about recruiting from non-eu worker applications get in touch today