Impact Of Brexit: Signs That Number Of EU Workers Travelling To The UK Are In Decline

24 Mar 2017

In a signal that the impact of the Brexit vote for the UK to leave the European Union is impacting the inflow of foreign workers to the UK a new report has shown that numbers may have peaked. 

Article 50, the official process for the UK to leave the European Union, is due to be implemented by the end of March and there has been much debate surrounding not only the terms of the exit but also the effect that this will have on immigration to the UK in both the short and longer term.

Using statistics from National Insurance registrations and ONS data the report from the Resolution Foundation reveals that the number of workers travelling to the UK from Europe has levelled off since the announcement of the Brexit referendum in June 2016.

Foreign migration to the UK from the European Union has fallen from 189,000 to 165,000 in the past three months.

Many sectors that are reliant on workers from the EU have been voicing their concerns over labour shortages since the Brexit vote with farming, transport and health thought to be the hardest hit. Meanwhile, London has been working on ways to allow EU workers to stay in the city amid fears of a significant skills shortage arising from the mass exodus of the EU workforce. 

Despite the drop in those entering the country figures from the Bank of England show that there has not been a significant number of EU workers leaving the country as was feared. 

There has been a drop of the number of workers making themselves available for work in the UK from the EU and businesses are reporting a shrinking labour pool available for them to recruit from. The Brexit negotiations that are due to start once Article 50 is triggered at the end of this month will be crucial to the future availability of overseas workers for UK companies and many are watching these negotiations very carefully in order to be sure they can meet their current and future labour requirements now and into the future.  Similarly, those wanting to travel and live in the UK will be hoping that an agreement on the free movement of labour between the EU and the UK can be negotiated as part of the wider Brexit discussions.

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