FALLOUT FROM COVID AND BREXIT ON THE JOB MARKET IN THE UK

COVID?and Brexit,?with all?their?accompanying uncertainties, have?had a considerable toll on the general economy?of the United Kingdom, not least the labor market. Even though?these events?are of a different character, their impacts?on business going concerns?and?job?security generally in the UK has been telling.

In June 2016, the?UK?voted by a narrow margin in favor of leaving?the European Union. This initiated an unprecedented?political, economic,?social, constitutional, and legal crisis that continues unabated as the date of anticipated departure,?March 29,?2019, has?passed?and?processes?have already?kicked in to fully operationalize?the novel departure from the mother union. The?process of carrying out this?exit?means?a vast number of immigrants,?especially?those?from?Eastern?European countries who?are mostly?engaged in artisanal work,?must now?go through the rigorous?process?of?trying to regularize their stay or move their business outside?of?the UK?per?operation of the law.?This development may create several?job?vacancies?that?cannot be immediately filled?due to?the impact of?Brexit.?

In?mid-September?of?this year,?there were?reports of?a?fuel shortage owing to the?mass?exodus of heavy-duty vehicle?drivers who?are immigrants and?had?to exit?the?UK due to?Brexit. These reports?gained considerable traction for several weeks before?the issue?began to subside.?The?situation?resulted in?long queues of?vehicle sat pump stations?across?the?UK. The?temporary?measure adopted by the UK government was the issuance of about?five thousand?short-term?visas to many of these lorry drivers who had not?yet?regularized their stay and had overstayed their welcome following?Brexit.

Employers that offer flexibility and or work-life balance do reduce their turnover and retention rates. - Phidelia Johnson

Another major concern raised by the?opposing?Labour Party?was for better working conditions?in order?for companies to be able to retain staff. Deputy Leader of?the?Labour Party Angela?Raynor?is reported to have said that “employers?are now finding it incredibly difficult to retain staff that they need and to skill them up.”?The supply chain?problems?have?also?raised fears of disruption in the run-up to Christmas without?time to?adequately?train more lorry drivers,?who are slipping away.

Great leaders drive employees to informed decision-making by using data to identify trends and work with them to determine root causes and develop effective solutions. - Phidelia Johnson?

In the midst of the?job?market?uncertainties due to Brexit?came another unwelcomed visitor?that?aggravated the already worsened labor?market situation. Unlike Brexit, which?was anticipated,?COVID?appears to have taken?everyone?by surprise when it reared?its?ugly head and started ravaging economies?all over?the world. Aside from?the huge number of?personnel?in the?labor?industry who fell victim to the?pandemic?by way death?or infection, it also led to the imposition of restrictions on several businesses?such as?those in the?construction, hospitality, and finance?industries,?and?with?those restrictions came?attendant?job?loss.?According to official government?statistics,?over 1.6 million?jobs?were reported as having been lost to the?pandemic?as?of?July 2021.?But?from?July?to?September 2021, the aftermath of the twin headwind of?COVID?and?Brexit?appears to be subsiding with?an overall positive?outlook reported for the labor?market.

The latest?report from the Office?for National?Statistics(ONS) indicates?that between July and September,?the number?of?job?vacancies recorded is in excess of 1.1 million, the highest level?since records?first?began in 2001. The UK employment rate was?simultaneously?estimated?to be?at 4.5%, compared with a rate of?only?4% before the?pandemic.?According to Darren Morgan, director of economic statistics at ONS,?“The?job?market has continued to recover from the effect of the coronavirus, with the number of employees on?payrolls?in September now well exceeding?pre-pandemic?levels. Vacancies also reached a new one-month?record in September at nearly 1.2 million, with our latest estimates suggesting that all industries have at least as many jobs on offer now as before the onset of?COVID-19. The number of expected redundancies remained very low in September, there are more employees on?payrolls?than ever before,?and the unemployment rate has fallen for eight months in a row.”

However, according to Yael Selfin, chief economist at KPMG UK, the?labor?market shortages “could stunt” the UK’s economic recovery from the?pandemic.?The recovery is testing the capacity of the economy to adjust to a new?post-pandemic?environment,?a?task made more difficult by the reduced availability of overseas workers.?The acute skills shortage has?pushed?vacancies to record levels?for the?second month in a row in September as employers struggled to find skilled staff.

Mark Jenkins, a supply chain director for London-based food wholesaler?Brakes, says?pressure?on the industry is “extreme” while staff retention is also a problem. According to him, for every two?people?they hire, only one?person ends up staying?because there?is such a wide variety of?other jobs in the market.?Wages have gone up?from?15% to 20% in some?parts?of the business in order to attract the right kind of?people,?and on top of that,?retention?bonuses are also being?paid?in order to?keep the staff that?they do?have. This is certainly having a toll on customers,?according to Mark, who says the cost of higher wages?will?have to be?passed?on.?“Suppliers are?passing?on?the?cost,?whilst?we also pass it on to customers; at?the end of the day, the consumers will feel the?pain.”?Sectors that had large increases in vacancies include accommodation and?food services,?professional activities,?and?manufacturing. Hospitality is the sector with the most vacancies?per?one hundred?workers. A shortage of lorry drivers—which the industry has blamed on factors including?COVID, Brexit, and tax?changes—has?affected fuel supplies in recent weeks and?has?also disrupted?the?food supply chain.

For employees to demonstrate an understanding of organizational vision, purpose, and strategy, leaders must foster a corporate culture that supports them and leverages technology for operational priorities. - Phidelia Johnson

The?Institute for Employment?Studies?(IES)?said labor shortages were affecting the whole economy, and likely between a quarter and a third?of that shortage?can be explained by lower migration?rates.?Tony Wilson, director of the IES, said there?are?now fewer unemployed?people per?vacancy than at any time in the last?forty?years. This?phenomenon?is?traceable to?having?fewer older?people?in?the?workforce?and more young?people?in education.