With the highly anticipated EU referendum on the horizon there seems to be many mixed feelings on what may happen post ‘Brexit’, especially within the recruitment sector.
There has been warnings of unprecedented long-term changes in jobs and the recruitment market on a whole depending on the outcome of the referendum.
So why stay?
One great concern of employers and recruiters are the changes that will indefinitely be made in terms of freedom of movement throughout Britain for EU citizens as over two million live and work here in the UK. Much of which provide the lower paid skilled work market here in the UK.
In the event of an independent government there would eventually be a system in place to hire EU based workers to help close the skills gap, inevitably resulting in a spike in staffing costs met with a much expected amount of red tape in terms of organising work visas, financial guarantees and dealing with immigration officials.
Throughout the UK 43.2% of recruiters believe that leaving the EU will cause further skill shortages with in companies across the UK. (According to a recent survey by CV-Library).
So why leave?
The EU is one of the main sources of British employment rights, which is a key argument for the pro-brexit business as leaving will allow us to redesign our employment legislation on our own terms.
Meaning we can assess things such as the agency workers directive (AWD) which grants agency workers the same rights as full time workers after just 12 weeks of employment..
Also the loss of skilled EU workers will provide more opportunity for those of the British public who are missing out on key roles.
All in all in terms of the recruitment sector, the argument to stay is much stronger. The leave argument is based much more on politics, independence and migration more than the economy of the UK and its workforce.