UK Labour Market During and Post EU Era – The Impact of Brexit on Migration Flows

Brexit represents a completely unparalleled event whose overall effects are still hard to predict and yet to fully materialize. Migration has been one of the main topics of concern for the British and of widespread public discontent with the EU membership for years. Nowadays, UK is among the areas heavily influenced by the withdrawal from the EU. The new UK migration system, introduced after Brexit, might bring significant structural changes to the UK labour market. The subject of this paper is an analysis of the migration flows before and after Brexit and of the UK labour market, in terms of share and composition of the foreign-born population, based on official national statistics and results of relevant studies. The aim is to demonstrate the impact of EU migration policy and labour market trends during the EU membership and to indicate the effects of the new post-Brexit migration system on the migration flows and employment across different sectors of the UK economy. The results of the research suggest that the end of freedom of movement for workers and new work visa schemes have initiated some major changes in the UK labour market. So far, it does seem that the new system provides certain benefits and fulfills its main objective of reducing the low-skilled migrant workforce. However, it has also resulted in considerable labour shortages in some sectors and record high numbers of immigrants.