Skilled immigrants to bring ‘brain gain’

BRITAIN’S economy is poised to benefit from a “brain gain” thanks to a jump in the number of highly skilled workers from outside the EU applying for jobs here.

The UK is the most attractive country for job hunters among Europe’s major economies, according to the jobs website Indeed. More foreign workers are searching for employment in the UK than domestic staff are looking to leave.

An improvement in the UK’S score in Indeed’s index came despite a drop in interest from Eu-based workers following the introduction of tougher postbrexit immigration rules.

The new points-based immigration system makes it tougher for businesses to access cheap labour from Europe but represents a liberalisation for workers in the rest of the world.

Pawel Adrjan, the head of Europe research at Indeed, said the findings suggest the Government’s point-based rules, meant to attract highly skilled workers, could be paying off.

“Our analysis suggests that noneuropean jobseekers are likely to be more highly skilled and therefore interested in higher paying jobs, compared to lower skilled roles European workers had previously taken,” Mr Adrjan said.

“This could be a sign that the UK Government’s post-brexit immigration policy is operating as intended, with new sources of global immigration of greatest benefit to employers hiring for higher skilled positions in sectors like IT, engineering and finance.”

The findings will be cheered by business leaders scrambling to fill a record number of vacancies, which recently surged above the number of unemployed for the first time ever.

The UK ranked well ahead of the “big four” eurozone economies of Germany, France, Italy and Spain in 2021 on Indeed’s index, which measures the difference between inbound and outbound job searches.