Migrants give UK a wide berth as other options abound

British firms are struggling with the biggest shortage of EU workers in two decades. A weak pound amid Brexit uncertainty means staying home or other EU states are more fruitful options.

Society 20:24 21.11.2018

Several countries, including the United States, Germany and Japan are currently experiencing the tightest labor market in a decade. In Britain, however, a shortage of candidates to fill positions to fuel the country's buoyant economy is being exacerbated by Brexit, as workers from other European Union countries leave in droves or stay away altogether.

Nearly half of all UK employers say they are struggling to fill vacancies, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation's (REC) said in its latest "JobsOutlook" report, published on Wednesday. The recruitment industry's trade body says 53 percent of companies intending to hire temporary staff are also grappling with a lack of agency workers.

The number of EU nationals working in Britain fell by 132,000 to 2.25 million in the three months to September compared with the same period last year, according to the UK's Office for National Statistics. The number of workers from eight Eastern European countries, including Poland and the Czech Republic, fell further — down 154,000 on the same period in 2017.

Shortage affects all sectors

"That's the biggest drop since 1997," Phil Campbell, REC's Senior Policy Advisor told DW. He noted "widespread shortages" in the logistics, food, health and social care sectors, partly as a result of a lack of applicants from other EU states.

Britain's National Health Service (NHS), for example, relies on thousands of doctors, nurses and other medical staff from abroad to counter a shortage of native workers. Nearly 6 percent of the NHS's 1.2 million staff comes from other European Union countries, including Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Spain. A tenth of NHS doctors are EU nationals, along with 7 percent of nurses.

Last summer, the NHS revealed it had failed to fill 41,722 nursing positions, in part due to a lack of interest from qualified staff from other EU countries, who until the Brexit vote in June 2016 were eager to take up jobs in Britain.

The referendum result, however, has left EU citizens in Britain in a state of flux for more than two years, during which time UK and EU negotiators plotted the country's withdrawal agreement. Rising animosity in Britain towards migrants — a major feature of a deeply-divisive EU referendum campaign — has prompted many to leave.