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UK ranks third most attractive place to work in Europe

UKWork

The UK is the third most attractive place to work in Europe, according to new research.

The data from global job site Indeed shows high-income countries attract most jobseekers. While those countries where job postings have bounced back most rapidly from the pandemic – suggesting a stronger labour market – have tended to become more popular.

In line with this, the UK remains a hotspot for international workers despite the decline in interest in British jobs from EU-based candidates after Brexit.

Even with its new post-Brexit immigration rules, the UK saw total work visa issuance levels soar to 25% above 2019 levels in 2021 with Indeed’s job search data showing candidates from India, the United States and Ireland accounted for more than one quarter of all foreign interest.

Labour shortages driving demand for foreign workers 

ONS data shows that for the first time ever, the UK had fewer unemployed people than job vacancies and Indeed’s research highlights that many businesses are looking to foreign labour as a potential solution.

74% of UK businesses say that they will “definitely” or “probably” hire foreign workers in 2022, with over 46% citing labour shortages as a key reason for this.

This is reflected across Europe with labour shortages in the domestic market cited as the most common reason in five of the eight countries surveyed, and the top answer overall, given by 43% of businesses.

Hard to fill UK occupations (nursing, medicine, engineering, education, tech) are more popular with foreign jobseekers than other occupations.

In the UK, foreign jobseekers are more than twice as likely to click on these hard to fill jobs than on roles that do not experience a shortage of interest from candidates (6.8% vs. 2.7%).

But it’s not only labour shortages driving demand, encouragingly 72% of European employers believe that working with foreign nationals helped them learn new things and 63% believe that foreign workers had skills that complemented their own.

Remote work and higher pay boosting cross border “mobility”

The pandemic boosted remote work across all of Europe and this trend is not going away.

Despite factors such as regulations, language or time zone issues representing barriers to hiring remote workers in other countries, job search patterns suggest that roles that offer a possibility to work remotely have a substantial potential to attract a global pool of workers.

On average from January 2019 to April 2022, foreign jobseekers were nearly 2 times more likely to search for remote jobs in the UK than domestic jobseekers.

Pawel Adrjan, head of EMEA research at the global job site Indeed, said:

“The pandemic inevitably curtailed jobseeker mobility around the world but the combination of rebounding labour markets, reopening borders and geopolitical events triggered a new wave of cross-border interest.

Despite the double-header of Brexit and the pandemic it continues to be one of the most attractive destinations for international workers and is increasingly popular with jobseekers outside of Europe.

Policy changes have not dampened foreign interest in UK jobs but it’s clear employers need to think more globally than before in their search for workers.

“In the face of labour shortages and with sectors like technology and healthcare especially dependent on foreign workers, it’s important that employers prepare for an inflow of foreign candidates by understanding where they are coming from, what jobs they are interested in and considering how they can appeal to workers abroad.

“But it’s not just about attraction: retention matters too.”

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