Fears for skills after influx of workers from abroad plummeted pre-Brexit
THE number of foreigners coming to work in the West Midlands plummeted by a third in the leadup to the EU referendum.
New figures from the Department for Work and Pensions show that people coming from overseas and registering for National Insurance numbers between April and June fell significantly across the UK.
Across the West Midlands 9,918 people from abroad applied for a National Insurance number during this three-month period, 19.9 per cent fewer than between January and March.
The number of these registrations that went to EU citizens fell by a similar margin, down by 10.1 per cent from 8,949 to 7,241.
In both cases these falls were significantly larger than the UK averper cent for applications from the EU.agesof-15.3percentforallregistrations and -14.4 per cent for EU Paul Faulkner, chief executive of citizens. Greater Birmingham Chambers of
Coventry saw the largest Commerce, said: “While the numdecrease in the area for total regisbers are down on the year to June trations from abroad with numbers 16 compared to the year to June 15, down by 28.2 per cent from quarter they are in line with the previous to quarter. quarter’s results.
However, the numbers across “Comparing the 2016 stats to the the West Midlands were actually previous two years does present a an increase of 14.6 per cent across challenge – there was a change in all National Insurance number regoperational process for National istrations when compared with the Insurance number registrations in equivalent period in 2015 and 20.6 2014 which led to the stats showing Registrations Apr-Jun 2016 (% change on previous quarter) North Warwickshire: 40 (-29.8%) Coventry: 1,983 (-28.2%) Solihull: 170 (-28.0%) Birmingham: 4,280 (-24.5%) Rugby: 356 (-19.8%) Nuneaton and Bedworth: 169 (-16.3%) Warwick: 424 (-13.8%) Wolverhampton: 1,304 (-10.6%) Walsall: 595 (-7.2%) Stratford-on-Avon: Dudley: 334 (-2.9%) Sandwell: 1,252 (-1.2%) 216 (-3.1%) a lower number of registrations in 2014 followed by an increase in 2015.
“As a result, it’s not clear whether uncertainty about Brexit pre-Referendum has played a role in this result.
“That being said, we will be watching closely for the next quarter’s figures.
“With unemployment at record lows and employment at record highs, businesses are increasingly fishing in a smaller pool for skilled and talented employees.
“Ensuring that the UK remains a globally competitive and attractive place to live, work and do business is crucial for our economy’s, and our region’s success.”
Across the UK as a whole there were 184,911 National Insurance number registrations from adults coming from overseas in the three months from April to June.
This was a large decrease of 15.3 per cent compared with the 218,396 in the previous quarter but only a slight decrease compared with the 186,364 who registered in April to June 2015.
The number coming from the EU followed a similar pattern with figures down from 163,592 to 139,962 quarter on quarter but up slightly on the 138,956 registrations in the same months last year.