Adecco: Skills shortage caused by post-Brexit drop in EU workers

A fall in the number of EU nationals working in the UK is creating a skills shortage, despite record numbers of new job vacancies – Office for National Statistics (ONS) data and Labour Market Outlook research suggests.

Low-skilled work sectors, that typically employ large numbers of non-UK workers, are facing some of the most acute shortages. These include retail, wholesale, manufacturing, health, accommodation and food service sectors.

The public sector is set to be most affected by the impact, with 43% of education and 49% of healthcare employers surveyed saying that they believed EU nationals in their organisations were considering leaving the UK.

These figures come despite ONS data showing that there are 748,000 UK job vacancies.