Exodus
Covid has all but eliminated other news for over a year. Nonetheless, the clamour has been rising from many sectors that they are unable to find staff, in particular unskilled and semi-skilled.The haulage industry, hospitality, logistics and agriculture have all been vocal in asking the government to help as staff shortages rise in the wake of a recovering economy and the effect of the UK's post Brexit immigration policy.
It is difficult to know how the government can move from its current position as ending freedom of movement was a major part of Brexit. Making concessions to one industry would provoke howls from others. On the one hand, it seems inevitable that changes will be made; on the other, what could those changes be?
The developing shortages are entirely predictable. Before covid, staffing levels were at their highest ever recorded. Now that all potential new overseas workers have been excluded from the unskilled and semi-skilled UK job market, catastrophic shortages of staff will follow unless a u-turn is made, and made rapidly. There may be a brief respite, as the furlough scheme is wound down and more people enter the job market but we would expect the buildup to Christmas to be the time when the labour market buckles.
We are lucky at Extraman that we operate in London, where the pool of available staff remains good at present. However, we are in no doubt that the storm is coming and our government's plan of throttling the labour supply essential to an ageing population and a recovering economy will be cruelly exposed.