The shortage of candidates in the UK has reached such a point that firms have begun cherrypicking candidates from the Antipodes.

Agencies such as Robert Walters, which specialises in finance, IT, legal, secretarial and engineering, have staged roadshows in Australia and New Zealand in a bid to find good candidates. At least two clients have recruited successfully from these roadshows, according to Robert Walters’ chief operating officer Giles Daubeney.

New recruits are picked up from the airport, given free mobile phone credit and have a bank account set up for them in the UK so they feel more at home, he added.

But the flow of candidates is also working the other way. “In New Zealand they have a major shortage of candidates with between one and three years’ experience,” he said.

In addition, Antipodean agencies are crying out for good recruitment consultants. Areas experiencing the worst shortages are accountancy recruitment, engineering, sales and marketing and legal, according to Guy Sigston, managing director of Lloyd Morgan, which has offices throughout Australia.

Several Australian recruitment agencies, including Lloyd Morgan, Hudson Group and McKenzie Consulting, held recruitment drives in the UK this autumn.