Data from the world’s largest job site, Indeed, shows a reduction in the number of European workers looking for jobs in the UK.
Since 2015, fewer people from European countries are searching for work in Britain – a trend which has been attributed to Brexit. Healthcare and construction industries appear to have been affected the worst, according to the data.
There has been a steady decline since the peak of UK job searches from Europe in February 2015 – which reached 17,513 per million searches. This figure dropped to 14,701 by July 2017.
The UK government has expressed a desire to bring in and keep talented workers who will benefit the country.
A similar trend has been suggested by other job sites such as Monster – who found a 12.6 per cent drop in 2018; Reed – who, last year, saw the lowest levels of EU applicants since 2016; and LinkedIn who found a 2.4 per cent drop in job views from EU countries.
Between September 2018 and the same time the previous year, there was a loss of around 132,000 EU workers in the UK – the largest fall since records began in 1997.
It has been suggested that the uncertain political and economic landscape that Brexit has wrought is responsible, as well as demand for workers in European countries growing.
A Research Associate at the Institute of Employment Studies, Rachel Marangozov, has stated: “Anyone would be reluctant to move to a country that could not guarantee their rights, residency or settlement prospects, let alone those of their family.
“In contrast, other parts of the EU and recovering economies are keen to attract and welcome workers like nurses, engineers and IT professionals, making the UK an even less attractive option.”