Brexit and Covid have really caused a lot of problems in the job market. Lots of ‘we are hiring’ signs in restaurants and bars in London because a huge number of hospitality workers were youngsters who when Covid hit, went back to their parents in France, Italy, Spain or where ever. Those that want to return to the UK now have to deal with the Brexit rules. Whereas once people could come and go across the EU, the UK now has rules. It only wants to attract the ‘brightest and best’ from all over the world. In pursuit of this we have the Home Office let by Pritti Patel. This department maintains a ‘shortage occupations list’. If the job is not on that list, you don’t qualify for a work visa.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations
Now, it would be fine thing if government department like the Home Office has its finger on the pulse of the UK economy, was sensitive to the labour needs of business. and reacts swiftly to let in workers with skills needed.
Sadly this is not the case. They want only the best, highly qualified professionals and those endorsed by the prestigious academic and cultural institutions. There is also a pay threshold to prevent cheap labour coming in. It is informed by the worst British snobbery and prejudice about what is ‘skilled’ and valued work thought up by civil servants.
What this means is that low pay long hour businesses like hospitality, care workers, agricultural workers do not qualify. This also hits the building sectors, where half the workers were from Romania and Poland. Truck drivers, especially those that are EU nationals, have been hard hit by Brexit and all the delays and bureaucracy on each side of the channel.
The UK governments response has been that businesses should simply train up more UK nationals to do these jobs and pay higher wages
In the case of truck driving, their case has been somewhat undermined by the fact that for the past year or more the driving schools and the test centres have been closed. So there are no new drivers entering the job market and lot of EU drivers deciding that working in the UK means more staying away from their families. Also with all the lockdowns and all the Internet shopping, there has been a big increase in demand for delivery drivers.
With respect the hospitality business, I pass signs in bars and restaurants in London advertising for staff, now that things are getting back to normal and people are starting to go out.
What is happening is that before Brexit, the UK had a very open labour market due to the free mobility of labour principle of the EU. It was very easy for an employers to hire someone from the EU which has a population of 445 million. Even the most remote businesses could find the workers they needed. They filled in the gaps in the labour market very effectively. This had the effect of keeping wages low in some areas. Ending cheap foreign labour stealing our jobs was one of the rallying cries from the Brexit supporters. But it turns out the opportunity to do these long hours low wage jobs was not met by much enthusiasm by the younger workers considering their career options.
It takes a lot of persuasion to convince someone that doing agricultural work, becoming a carer, or the working in the notoriously underpaid hospitality sector is a good idea. If those areas became better paid then the cost of food would go up, we would need extra taxes to pay for social care and dining out will be an activity reserved for the well heeled. That consequence of the Brexit deal was never really made very clear to the public .
At the same time as Brexit, the labour market has also been hit by Covid and that is having a big effect. It has given a lot of people time to pause and re-consider their work/life balance. Many have decided to change what they do because of poor pay/bad management/long hours/awful commutes. This is putting a lot of pressure on employers to make work more attractive. The alternative is to pay through the nose for agency workers.
The government is the biggest UK employer. So it will end up paying for a lot of these skill shortages by having to hire from a diminishing pool skilled workers. There will always be someone who benefits from this and it is the job agents who charge a premium to find skilled workers. The UK NHS alone paid £6.2billion in agency fees. It deals with shortages of doctors and nurses by inviting those in less developed countries to work in the UK, thereby depleting healthcare in countries desperately need it. Covid was made far worse in the UK because social care is underfunded and its staff underpaid and it is a local government responsibilty rather than coming under the NHS. This was a long standing structural problem that is just now becoming a political priority.
Another structural problems in the UK is that skills training has never been taken as seriously by government as it is in other countries (eg. Germany). We just send half the kids to university and hope they come out with some useful skills. Goodness knows what the other half are supposed to do. Businesses are not incentivised to train their staff. Consequently productivity is pretty low and companies are slow to innovate and adapt to technology changes.
It would be nice to imagine that the government has a ‘cunning plan’ to deal with these important issues. Sad to say, all we get is sound bites and Covid has provided a most convenient excuse for all manner of political failings. All these things can be fixed if the politcal will was there. But usually it waits until there is a crisis.
A short term fix would be to allow in EU drivers until sufficient UK nationals could be trained and maybe subsidise their course fees.
Instead we like to have a bit of a drama in the UK.
The shortage occupation lists recognises this and invites Oscar winners. But only some categories!