CORONAVIRUS is currently dominating the headlines, and it remains to be seen what its long-term impact on the UK’s economy and jobs market will be. Yet the pandemic has pushed another very real shift in economic conditions out of the news. After years of debate and political posturing, the UK left the European Union on 31 January this year. The transition period, in which the country is still in the European single market and EU customs union, is due to end on 31 December 2020, regardless of the coronavirus situation.
Before the outbreak worsened, , produced by 91av in association with science, technology, engineering and medicine specialist recruiter SRG, asked employers and employees how they thought Brexit would affect the jobs market in the STEM sector. Overall, the survey revealed that scientists’ views on moving jobs internationally seem to have been mildly improved by the finality of Brexit.
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This year’s survey reached nearly 3000 people working in roles in STEM. The overwhelming majority were in the UK, with a handful based in other European nations. Arguments over Brexit have simmered for years, but the finality of the Brexit deadline seems to have changed a few minds regarding whether they would consider moving countries for a job compared with last year. Our previous survey found that 23 per cent of UK respondents would consider it, while this year 28 per cent of them would. In the rest of Europe, the figure rose from 34 to 45 per cent.
Concern about moving jobs was strongest in academia. One respondent said they had “decided not to make any moves for the foreseeable future due to uncertainty”.
Another worry was skills shortages. Last year, the UK government announced plans to impose a £30,000 minimum salary condition, which currently applies to non-EU nationals who want to work in the UK, to EU nationals seeking jobs in the country after Brexit. Some UK respondents were anxious that this could mean fewer scientists from continental Europe would be able to join their teams, leaving knowledge gaps. “I work for the NHS,” one person told us. “Many important positions are below that pay threshold.” Others believed it would be less of an issue: “This threshold seems sufficiently low that it would not be a barrier to recruiting the same people.”
When asked where they thought the salary threshold should be placed, nearly half of all the people we surveyed said they would get rid of it altogether. The percentage of respondents in continental Europe who wanted to abolish the threshold was slightly higher. Yet more respondents in Europe than in the UK would opt to keep it at £30,000. One possibility is that this suggests UK workers are more acutely aware of the skills gap the country faces and so want to lower the threshold. Meanwhile, the EU workers who want to keep the threshold at £30,000 might be more concerned about competition for jobs in the UK and are seeking to lower competition.
Some worries that Brexit will make the UK a less appealing place to work may be addressed by the UK government’s announcement in January of a new visa scheme intended to attract international scientists. You will have to wait for next year’s survey to find out.
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