Employers to take on more British staff

Employers are to take on more British jobseekers, after new figures show that fewer eastern European migrants are coming to work in the UK.

Official figures on migrants from so-called A8 accession countries suggest that numbers registering to work in the UK are at a three-year low.

Employers with vacancies to fill are expected to turn to British jobseekers, particularly those recently made redundant, to stop the gap.

Dr John Philpott, chief economist at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) said: “The latest quarterly figures on A8 workers show that, with a weakening jobs market and a sharp drop in the value of the pound, the UK is losing its economic pulling power as far as eastern European migrants from the initial EU accession countries, especially Poland, are concerned.

“The tight jobs market conditions that sucked in scores of migrants earlier in the decade won’t return for three to four years at the earliest. For the time being, with recruitment falling and redundancies sharply rising, employers won’t be too concerned that the influx of migrant workers is slowing.”

That immigration to the UK has levelled off is thought to be another indicator of worsening labour market conditions.

© Crimson Business Ltd, 2008