South: EU workers turn their backs on working in UK
According to new data released by the UK’s leading independent job board, CV-Library, based in Hook, fewer European workers are looking for jobs in the UK, as Brexit plans seem to be hitting EU candidate confidence hard.
The popular job board analysed traffic to its website over the past three years and found that overall traffic from the EU fell by 4.3% in the past 12 months, with even bigger being witnessed in traffic from these key countries:
Biggest drops in EU traffic 2015 v 2017
1. Slovenia – traffic down 40.2%
2. Hungary – traffic down 28.6%
3. Slovakia – traffic down 25.5%
4. Romania – traffic down 22.7%
5. Bulgaria – traffic down 18.2%
Biggest drops in EU traffic 2016 v 2017
1. Belgium – traffic down 48.2%
2. Slovenia – traffic down 27.9%
3. Netherlands – traffic down 22.7%
4. Romania – traffic down 20.3%
5. Portugal – traffic down 19.1%
Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, commented: “Our data brings to light the concerns amongst EU workers around Brexit, with those living in other European countries clearly pulling back the reigns on their UK job applications. Despite a lack of clarification on what is actually going to happen, Brexit appears to have understandably made foreign staff think twice about coming to the country and this is sparking fears amongst businesses.
“After all, we do not have enough talent in the UK to meet demand right now and this is putting pressure on organisations to think more strategically about overcoming their recruitment challenges. This could mean a range of options: from being more creative with their job adverts and where they post them, to looking for people that have experience in different industries and honing in on school leavers and graduates.”
Alongside this, other countries which witnessed a drop in traffic over the past 12 months included: Hungary (-13.7%), Poland (-13.5%), Austria (-13.1%) Slovakia (-12.4%) and the Czech Republic (-9.6%). On the other hand, when comparing traffic from 2016, to 2017, CV-Library can reveal that traffic from the following countries saw the biggest increases: Latvia (up 26.3%), Cyprus (up 9%), Finland (up 9.6%), Spain (up 8.6%) and Malta (up 7.8%).
Biggins added: “Key industries within the UK are heavily reliant on migrant workers in order to keep up production and maintain productivity levels so it’s concerning to see such a dip in traffic across the board. That said, it’s clear that not all countries are feeling affected, with the likes of Latvia, Cyprus, Finland, Spain and Malta all increasing their traffic to our site in the past year. There is a great amount of uncertainty around keeping the talent pipeline full but these findings do provide some reassurance that the appetite is still there for some.”
