Lowering hiring expectations as new EU workers arrive
2 January 2014
The New Year influx of Bulgarian and Romanian workers to the UK has not been as dramatic as some predicted, but recruiters are already sizing up the possible effects.
Thu, 2 Jan 2014The New Year influx of Bulgarian and Romanian workers to the UK has not been as dramatic as some predicted, but recruiters are already sizing up the possible effects.
There were major concerns in some quarters that the 1 January 2014 lifting of labour market restrictions would results in substantial migrant numbers and put a strain on the UK, with rumours last January that the Home Office would run campaigns designed to put Bulgarian and Romanian citizens off the idea of coming to Britain.
And on 30 December, the Daily Telegraph ran a story based on one Bulgarian recruitment consultant’s understanding that there are agencies setting up to help Bulgarians navigate the UK benefit system, also noting seats on buses to London from Bulgaria were fully booked. However, consultant Aleksandra Dzhongova also added: “It is not in the Bulgarian culture to want to claim benefits.”
However, as covered across the national press, there has been no New Year’s rush to UK shores. Writing a short piece in today’s Daily Mirror entitled ‘The feared great invasion that has not materialised’, Labour MP Keith Vaz says that a 180-seat plane arriving from Romania yesterday (1 January) had 40 empty seats and just two individuals seeking work.
But Edward Vigars, a Leicester-based area manager at blue collar recruiter Encore Personnel, says the company has had “a couple [of candidates] register with ourselves today”, but does not expect a “major influx”.
Vigars predicts that the new intake of migrants will likely be smaller than 2004, “as the UK was one of only a small number of countries that opened their borders then”, with Polish workers among the beneficiaries at the time.
Yesterday also saw Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands open their working doors to new migrants, while 19 other European countries were already accepting Bulgarian and Romanian workers.
European Commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion László Andor says: “It is unlikely that there will be any major increase following the ending of the final restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian workers.”
However, one area in which there might be great influx is healthcare, according to Dr Grzegorz Chodkowski, the Poland-based chief executive officer of MedPharmJobs.com.
He told recruiter.co.uk last year that Romania has twice as many doctors per capita as any other Central and Eastern European country, and “is one of the few countries in Europe with a surplus of nurses”.
“We can expect in the next few years for Romania to be the country in Europe with the highest number of nurses working abroad,” he says. Only specialist nurses in neonatal intensive care units are on the UK government’s shortage occupation list of professionals whose occupation guarantees them entry to work in the country.
Free listings website Gumtree also provides a couple of examples of demand arising from the immigration changes, with one recruitment agency start-up platform advertising for Romanians to set up consultancies, and a legal services firm looking for Romanian and Bulgarian-speaking qualified solicitors.
There were major concerns in some quarters that the 1 January 2014 lifting of labour market restrictions would results in substantial migrant numbers and put a strain on the UK, with rumours last January that the Home Office would run campaigns designed to put Bulgarian and Romanian citizens off the idea of coming to Britain.
And on 30 December, the Daily Telegraph ran a story based on one Bulgarian recruitment consultant’s understanding that there are agencies setting up to help Bulgarians navigate the UK benefit system, also noting seats on buses to London from Bulgaria were fully booked. However, consultant Aleksandra Dzhongova also added: “It is not in the Bulgarian culture to want to claim benefits.”
However, as covered across the national press, there has been no New Year’s rush to UK shores. Writing a short piece in today’s Daily Mirror entitled ‘The feared great invasion that has not materialised’, Labour MP Keith Vaz says that a 180-seat plane arriving from Romania yesterday (1 January) had 40 empty seats and just two individuals seeking work.
But Edward Vigars, a Leicester-based area manager at blue collar recruiter Encore Personnel, says the company has had “a couple [of candidates] register with ourselves today”, but does not expect a “major influx”.
Vigars predicts that the new intake of migrants will likely be smaller than 2004, “as the UK was one of only a small number of countries that opened their borders then”, with Polish workers among the beneficiaries at the time.
Yesterday also saw Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands open their working doors to new migrants, while 19 other European countries were already accepting Bulgarian and Romanian workers.
European Commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion László Andor says: “It is unlikely that there will be any major increase following the ending of the final restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian workers.”
However, one area in which there might be great influx is healthcare, according to Dr Grzegorz Chodkowski, the Poland-based chief executive officer of MedPharmJobs.com.
He told recruiter.co.uk last year that Romania has twice as many doctors per capita as any other Central and Eastern European country, and “is one of the few countries in Europe with a surplus of nurses”.
“We can expect in the next few years for Romania to be the country in Europe with the highest number of nurses working abroad,” he says. Only specialist nurses in neonatal intensive care units are on the UK government’s shortage occupation list of professionals whose occupation guarantees them entry to work in the country.
Free listings website Gumtree also provides a couple of examples of demand arising from the immigration changes, with one recruitment agency start-up platform advertising for Romanians to set up consultancies, and a legal services firm looking for Romanian and Bulgarian-speaking qualified solicitors.
