Draft Brexit rules could cause an “unskilled workforce crisis”

UK industry would find it “near impossible” to recruit low-skilled EU workers post-Brexit, if rules governing access to the UK jobs market for non-EU migrant workers were extended to EU citizens. According to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), such an extension would result in low-skilled vacancies being closed to EU nationals, while they would also be restricted from applying for jobs that pay less than £30,000 a year. The service, manufacturing and agricultural sectors would be impacted the most by the proposals, with EU and EEA migrants accounting for more than 90% of the current workforce in these sectors.