LONDON/LAHORE (Reuters): Britain has received a surge in job searches from overseas during the past year, partly reflecting a post-Brexit relaxation in work visa rules for non-European Union nationals, figures from recruitment website Indeed showed on Tuesday.
Reuters mention that a record 5.5 per cent of searches for British jobs on Indeed’s website in June came from potential applicants outside the country, up from 4.4pc a year earlier and an average of 3.6pc from 2017 to 2019.
It would have been just another news if many in Pakistan were not desperate to leave the country for greener pastures – Europe (European Union) in general but the United Kingdom in particular for our closer affiliation with the past masters and the English language which is makes the communication easier for the migrants [both legal and illegal].
According to official documents, over 750,000 educated youth decided in 2022 to seek employment overseas as the economic crisis as reflected by record-high inflation and fewer employment opportunities gripped the country.
Meanwhile, the figures nearly tripled when compared with 2021 when the total stood at 225,000 – clearly showing that the worsening brain drain would continue to haunt Pakistan in the coming years.
However, we don’t know the exact number of illegal migrants even after the Greece boats tragedy.
Coming back to the figures shared in the Reuters report, many of those searching for jobs in Britain are from Pakistan as it says EU-based job seekers accounted for 1.4pc of Indeed’s UK job searches in June – down slightly from before Brexit – while non-EU interest has more than doubled to 4.1pc of searches. India, Nigeria, South Africa and Pakistan were some of the main origins for searches.
Pawel Adrjan – Indeed’s director of research for Europe, the Middle East and Africa – said the increase showed a growing interest in higher-skilled jobs like software development from non-EU applicants, and a shift from lower-skilled roles European workers had filled before Britain left the EU in January 2020.
“The UK government’s new immigration policy is operating as intended,” Adrjan said.
The Bank of England has focused on labour shortages as wage growth has accelerated to its highest in more than 20 years despite a recent fall in inflation.
The UK government phased out most EU nationals’ unrestricted right to move to Britain to work after Brexit.
However, visa rules were relaxed to no longer require employers to show they were unable to hire a British or EU worker, as long as they were for roles that paid at least 26,200 pounds ($33,431) a year – slightly below Britain’s average annual wage – and offered at least the going rate for that type of job.
Lower-paid workers can receive visas in areas with acute labour shortages, mostly in health and social care.
But employers in sectors such as hospitality and lower-paying areas of manufacturing and construction now struggle to recruit from overseas.
In 2022, Britain had record net migration of 606,000, according to official estimates.
Immigration to developed countries has rebounded in recent years, fuelled by tight labour markets and aging populations, Adrjan said.
Canada and Australia have seen foreign-origin job searches roughly double since 2019 to 10.9pc and 17.2pc of total job searches for those countries respectively, according to Indeed, which claims 330 million unique visitors each month.
By contrast, the figures for overseas job hunters targeting the United States and the EU were 3.4pc and 2.7pc respectively, both barely changed from before the pandemic, according to Indeed.
