January 21, 2023, Britain: In the UK, a report showed that Brexit immigration curbs have resulted in a shortfall of 330k workers in the UK, contributing to a more closed labor market and fueling inflation. This huge force is calculated to be 1% of the total Britain workforce.
An analysis by the Centre for European Reform found that low-skilled sectors including hospitality and retail have been hit hardest by the end of freedom of movement following the UK’s exit from the European Union. The figures are the latest to show the costs of Brexit to the economy of the nation.
Worker shortages in Britain have helped fuel the most powerful UK wage growth outside of the covid pandemic, creating more difficulties for the Bank of England as it fights high inflation. According to the CER, the biggest shortfalls of non-EU workers were seen in the retail, hospitality, transportation, and storage sectors.
While Prime Minister of the UK Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government was forced for exiting the EU, it’s now working to manage the economic fallout of the judgment. The PM of the nation pledged to clamp down on the supply of affordable labor from Europe when it presented a new post-Brexit immigration system.
According to economists John Springford and Jonathan Portes at the research group, Britain has lost about 1% of its workforce due to the effect of Brexit. The economists also said, ‘While that led to a 130k boost in non-EU workers by June 2022 compared to a system where immigration controls were not changed post-Brexit, it was tapped out by 460k fewer employees from the EU.
Springford and Portes said, ‘The conditions of the new system, while liberal, are too burdensome to compensate for the loss of free movement in low-skilled sectors of the economy, which has led to labor deficiencies.’
