Growth ‘higher among businesses employing EU migrants’

Nick Elvin

Employers who have turned to EU migrants to fill vacancies in recent years have done so because these recruits have brought the experience and commitment needed to support growth, according to a new study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The report, ‘The growth of EU labour: Assessing the impact on the UK labour market’, draws on the perspectives of employers, young UK-born people and EU migrants, alongside previously unreported analysis of ONS data on migrant labour.

It finds that organisations that recruit EU migrant workers are more likely to report that their business has been growing over the last two years (51%) than organisations that don’t employ them (39%).

It also states that there is little evidence to suggest employers are recruiting migrant workers because they are cheaper than UK-born workers or because they require less training. Only twelve per cent of employers said they recruited migrant workers because they have lower expectations about pay and employment conditions.

The study gives evidence of a more competitive labour market for young people seeking entry-level roles, however it also indicates that employers who recruit migrant workers are actually more likely to invest in work experience, internships and apprenticeships than employers who don’t recruit them.

Commenting on the findings, Peter Cheese, chief executive of the CIPD, said: “Employers have been turning to EU migrants to fill vacancies, particularly for lower skilled jobs, often because they are a bit older and have more work experience than young people in the UK – emphasising the competitive nature of the market for entry level jobs.

“This is a highly charged political issue, but our research shows that many of the negative assumptions about immigration are untrue. Employers are making rational decisions to employ more experienced and qualified workers from overseas over less experienced UK workers, or are hiring migrants because there are simply not enough applicants in the local labour market. What the vast majority of employers are not doing is hiring migrants to lower the wage bill or offset the need to train the workforce.

“Policy makers and job-seekers also have to recognise that a competitive global labour market is a fact of modern life, and that British workers are competing in this market for roles at all levels. This highlights a particular need for even greater efforts to close the gap between education and work by government, business and employee representatives, to provide better guidance and support to young people, and help create a more level playing field by improving their employability skills and therefore employment prospects, especially the low-skilled and unskilled.”