There has been the biggest drop in EU citizens working in the UK since the ONS began recording such data – that’s despite low levels of unemployment and plenty of vacancies to fill. While Brexiters may hail this as a good thing, in reality it highlights how the referendum vote has depressed wages and clobbered the pound making working here less attractive. This vote of no confidence in the economy will further damage our public services and our prosperity.
The number of EU workers dropped by 86,000 in the three months between April and June compared with figures a year earlier, the ONS revealed. This was driven by a 117,000 decrease in workers from Poland and seven other Eastern European countries. The number from older EU member states such as Germany, France and Italy also dropped by 23,000, while there was a rise in Romanian and Bulgarian workers by over 50,000.
With a no-deal Brexit looking increasingly possible, EU citizens have no idea whether they’ll be able to stay in the country after March 2019. The plunging pound and booming economies in Eastern Europe make moving to the UK for work – or staying here – less appealing.
“This uncertainty… as well as the emotional burden that the separation of migrant families entails, means that some Polish people, who have been living in the UK for years, might have decided to return to Poland or would have held the decision to come to the UK,” Arkady Rzegocki, Polish ambassador to the UK, told The Times.
Meanwhile, the NHS has seen a sharp rise in EU staff leaving since the Brexit vote and a drop in new applications from the bloc. In the private sector, industries from construction and hospitality to finance and fruit picking are losing key workers. Earlier this week, human resources chiefs reported a “supply shock” across the economy with skills shortages left by a shortfall in EU workers.
As EU workers leave, we are plugging the gap by more migration from outside the bloc – the number of non-EU workers in the UK rose by 74,000 in the latest figures. But that won’t be enough to stop our economy becoming less attractive and less competitive on the global stage.