19 June 2017

NIESR: Businesses sound the alarm over immigration as Brexit negotiations begin

• 25% of organisations say a requirement for a job offer for EU migrants would have a negative impact on them.
• The main reason employers recruit EU nationals is because they cannot fill low or semi-skilled jobs with UK-born applicants, cited by 35% of low-wage industry firms
• One in ten (11%) of businesses say the number of EU nationals they have recruited since Brexit has decreased
• 1 in 5 organisations say they are considering relocating all or part of their UK operations outside the UK (11%) or will focus future growth outside the UK (9%) as a result of the vote to leave the EU.

The end of free movement of people from the EU, will damage UK businesses and public service delivery unless post-Brexit immigration policies take account of the need for both skilled and unskilled labour from the EU. This is a key message in new research from the National Institute and the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development.

It also calls on businesses to broaden their recruitment and people development strategies to ensure they are doing all they can to attract UK born workers and highlights the need for significant changes to Government skills policy.

The research, Facing the future: tackling labour and skills shortages post-Brexit, analyses employers’ perspectives on migration restrictions following the end of free movement and is based on a survey of more than 1,000 organisations, employer focus groups held around the UK and in-depth interviews with HR leaders.

The qualitative research from the focus groups and case study interviews reveals many employers have difficulty attracting sufficient UK nationals to work in low paid and low-skilled jobs particularly where hours are anti-social or the work environment challenging - especially in regions such as the East Midlands and South West of England.  This is despite offering higher pay and investing in the skills of the workforce in some cases.  However employers in low paid sectors such as retail and hospitality are more likely to report they employ EU migrants because they have lower expectations around pay and employment conditions (15%) than the all employer average in the survey (7%).

Some employers participating in the CIPD/NIESR research have already take action to widen their recruitment channels to boost employment of disadvantaged groups in the labour market and raise pay in response to migration restrictions, especially in sectors such as retail where the proportion of EU nationals in low-skilled roles is relatively high. 

However, there is considerable scepticism among some employers over whether efforts to attract a wider range of UK candidates will prove sufficient, particularly among organisations in sectors such as food manufacturing, hospitality and care which have historically relied on migrant workers. [...]

Press release

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