London, UK: Interest from non-EU workers in low-paid UK jobs is fading fast according to jobs website Indeed.
Website searches by EU nationals for low-paid jobs including warehousing roles recorded the biggest declines at 41%.
The number of EU citizens searching for work in Britain has fallen by more than a third since Brexit. Figures from the jobs website Indeed show searches by EU-based jobseekers for work in the UK were down by 36% in May from average levels in 2019. Low-paid jobs in hospitality, the care sector and warehouses recorded the biggest declines at 41%.
Indeed’s research shows declining interest in British jobs among EU-based workers that cannot be attributed solely to the pandemic. Although interest in UK jobs from all foreign workers fell during 2020, searches from outside the EU have since rebounded nearly to pre-pandemic levels, while interest from the EU has continued to fall – especially in lower-paid jobs which are most affected by post-Brexit immigration rules.
Searches for UK jobs from EU workers are now down 36% compared to 2019 (and 45% down since 2016, the year of the referendum). The declining interest from the EU, coming as interest from the rest of the world is rising, may be attributed to the ending of freedom of movement for EU citizens at the beginning of 2021.
Official figures have shown a reduction in the numbers of EU citizens coming to Britain since the Brexit vote in 2016, but there has been a steady rise in non-EU workers arriving in their place.
Jack Kennedy, a UK economist at Indeed, said employers in higher-paying sectors such as tech, science and engineering were managing to offset falling EU jobseeker interest with staff from the rest of the world.
“But lower-paid roles are not receiving the same attention from foreign workers as they did only two years ago. It means domestic workers may be required to fill the gaps,” he said.
“However, with many sectors, including hospitality, already struggling to recruit all the staff they need, higher salaries may be required to attract UK workers to fill those roles.”
The UK government’s new immigration regime aims to prioritise ‘those with the highest skills’, but in practice it is also making it harder to recruit foreign workers for most lower-paid jobs.
Interest from workers outside the EU is largely stable, and even rising in the case of higher-paid roles, driven largely by jobseekers from Commonwealth countries and Hong Kong.
Interest is also stable from jobseekers in Ireland. Though part of the EU, Irish citizens can still freely live and work in the UK due to the Common Travel Area agreement between the two countries.
