QUOTE
“EU is struggling to establish itself as a top destination for foreign job
seekers”
ENDQUOTE

Foreign workers’ interest in UK roles doubles

Foreign interest in UK jobs has doubled since the government launched its
post-Brexit immigration regime, according to data from jobs platform
Indeed.

The share of UK job searches by non-UK workers rose by 146% from a pandemic
low point of 2.2% in April 2021, to 5.5% in June 2023. Foreign searches
also remain well above the 2017-2019 average of 3.5%, Indeed found.

When it came to EU-based jobs, 2.8% of all clicks came from outside the
bloc in June 2023, compared to just 1.5% in April 2021.

The new, points-based immigration system came into force in January 2021,
and requires employers to sponsor and secure visas for people outside the
UK who want to live and work here but do not already have settled status or
permanent leave to remain.

Indeed’s analysis looked at countries where the company has a website,
looking at where the search or click was recorded and the IP location of
those who are searching.

Indeed’s data showed that personal care and home health was the largest
sector of interest for foreign job seekers looking at jobs in the UK,
attracting 9.3% of foreign clicks in the first half of this year, up by 7.3
percentage points from 2019.

These positions most commonly attracted interest from applicants in
Nigeria, India and South Africa, it found.

Ukrainian workers seeking refuge from the conflict in their own country
were most interested in English-speaking nations; the UK received 15% of
clicks from Ukrainians, while Canada and the US were both popular (34% and
25%) respectively.

And while larger English-speaking countries were popular with non-domestic
jobseekers, smaller nations including Luxembourg, Oman and Switzerland
attracted higher foreign search shares, it said.

Pawel Adrjan, director of EMEA research at Indeed, said: “Immigration to
developed countries has rebounded significantly in recent years, fueled in
large part by tight labour markets and long-term demographic trends
including ageing populations and shrinking local workforces.

“In fact, ONS data shows that net migration to the UK was 606,000 in 2022,
the highest number on record. In contrast, Indeed’s data shows that the EU
is struggling to establish itself as a top destination for foreign job
seekers, despite the rebound from pandemic lows.”

Research from the CIPD earlier this year found that only 15% of employers
have used the new immigration system to sponsor migrant workers, however.

Similarly, the new system has not had the impact on recruitment and
development of UK workers that had been hoped – the CIPD found that
introducing a requirement to sponsor certain overseas workers had not led
to a greater investment in local talent.

<https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/post-brexit-immigration/>

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