Young people growing dissatisfied with job prospects at home
Around 7.6 million British workers now say they are willing to move overseas to improve their job prospects research has shown.
More than a quarter (27 per cent) of Brits in the study said they would consider moving country to find a better job, as they seek to escape the UK’s soaring cost of living and static wages.
Young, qualified employees are most likely to be looking to pastures new, with 36 per cent of workers aged 18-29 agreeing they would think about relocating. This was even higher (38 per cent) for those with postgraduate qualifications, but lower for those educated to secondary school level (23 per cent).
In news that further displays the levels of dissatisfaction felt by many UK workers, almost 6.5 million (23 per cent) are looking to change employer in the next year.
The report states “Our findings indicate Britain has a risk of ‘brain drain’ in the coming year, posing significant problems for companies looking to recover from the downturn. Both blue collar and white collar workers in the UK show a quarter of their number are willing to look overseas for work – and that figure rises for the higher educated workers. Even if only a fraction of these people actually make the move abroad, UK businesses will face a significant loss of talent, just at the time they most need it.”
The international survey also revealed the extent to which workers in developing countries are willing to move internationally to further their career. Employees from Mexico (57 per cent), Colombia (52 per cent) and Turkey (46 per cent) were the most likely to express a desire to work abroad, with the Philippines (44 per cent) and Brazil (41 per cent) also scoring highly. The UK was 9th out of the 17th countries studied, with the USA (21 per cent) and Canada (20 per cent) also having their fair share of workers with international ambitions. Austrians (12 per cent) and Czechs (9 per cent) were the most likely to want to stay in their home country.
The findings follow recent CIPD research that showed that employers are still experiencing a ‘War for Talent’ for the best qualified graduates, and employers have been warned they need to be ‘agile’ to compete, despite the condition of the labour market.
