The news has been full of discussion of EU migrant workers and the state of the job market in our economy. But is it really a problem? On the contrary, new research from the CIPD has shown that rather than hindering the job prospects of UK citizens, the companies who are employing migrant workers are also creating job opportunities for young people.
The research concluded that there are many reasons that companies are employing EU migrant workers. It states that it is growing increasingly difficult to attract UK born candidates to fill unskilled of semi-skilled jobs. Added to this, it has been found that migrant workers can be highly motivated and have a better work ethic than their UK-born counterparts. In the study 12% said they recruited migrant workers because they have lower expectations about pay and employment conditions.
While these may not be reasons that some employers would give for taking on EU migrant workers, the new CIPD survey showed some positive impact of employers who have turned to migrant labour. The research shows that these employers are also investing in initiatives to help young people struggling to enter the labour market. This can only be a good thing for UK citizens and isn’t a fact that is widely publicised.
If excessive restrictions on migrant labour were imposed, this would prove to be extremely counter-productive. It would harm the growth of firms who looking to create jobs and youth employment opportunities.
To find out more about the results o the survery, you can find the report here: http://www.cipd.co.uk/binaries/the-growth-of-eu-labour-assessing-impact-uk-labour-market_2014.pdf
