Who Will Plug the Candidate and Skills Shortages Post-Brexit?

The UK’s labour and skills shortages have become ever more pressing amid growing uncertainty around what a Brexit deal will look like (if there is one) between the UK and the European Union. Ensuring businesses have access to the people they need is of critical importance if the economy is to flourish post-Brexit.

As well as permanent staff, a flexible workforce plays a crucial role in keeping British businesses economically viable and competitive, and the public sector able to function and provide much needed services. But recruiters and employers have been voicing their growing concerns over the insufficient supply of temporary and agency workers to them, even before the rules on immigration from the EU are changed.

According to the REC’s report Short-term labour for long-term growth: EU agency workers post-Brexit a third of recruiters surveyed who supply agency workers to the warehousing (29 per cent), hospitality (38 per cent) and food and drinks (39 per cent) sectors had not been able to meet their clients’ overall demand in the last 12 months. For employers, candidate availability remains the key challenge for them in meeting their industry’s needs, with two in five employers who use agency workers (42 per cent) saying that they haven’t been able to recruit enough temporary or seasonal staff to meet their demands for labour.

EU temporary workers provide an invaluable contribution across sectors, particularly those facing acute temporary candidate and skills shortages. Over half of recruiters that supply the food and drinks, warehousing and hospitality sectors reveal that half or more of their temporary assignments in the last year were filled by EU workers, with a particular reliance on younger labour.

Recruiters are clear we need a comprehensive mobility and migration deal in the EU exit agreement, which will allow access to migrant temporary workers to plug candidate shortages and keep UK business growing. Any new system should be based on the contribution people come to make, and not on an immovable numerical target.

The UK’s economic strength is built on companies being able to maximise opportunities for growth. And to continue doing so they must maintain the ability to access the people they need. Otherwise we risk damaging national prosperity in a way that will affect us all.