Will Straw takes issues with Fraser’s post on the matter of just how many “new” jobs have been filled by foreign-born workers. As Straw says, foreign-born is one metric, British-national another. If you measure these things by the latter yardstick then, apparently, 69% of new jobs in the last year have been filled by non-UK nationals. This is interesting and that is, evidently, a hefty percentage. (It would be interesting to see a regional breakdown of these figures too.)
The better and more important question is why businesses appear to favour employing foreigners. Because this is the better, more important question it’s the one that’s best left unasked. I don’t pretend to know the answer either. In some sectors a shortage of skills may be part of the answer. Similarly, the related problems of educational failure and welfare dependency must contribute something to the phenomenon. It’s complicated.
But there may be other, simpler, more logical reasons too and perhaps businesses are just behaving rationally. That is, given the choice between two applicants, one of whom has travelled from eastern europe (or further afield) to work in Britain and a native-born Briton with a patchy employment record, it might be thought rational to select the foreigner on the grounds that, having made such an effort to be hired, they are, all things being equal, likely to be more reliable, disciplined and hard-working than their British counter-part*. And that’s before you consider wages. (Mind you if this is the case, then it might apply – as a theoretical matter – to contests between rival British candidates too. All else being equal, pick the candidate who has to move house to come and work for you.)
And, as in the United States, there are some jobs (especially seasonal employment) for which it is hard to find suitable native-born workers. Again, I make no pretence to be an expert on this, but know of at least anecdotal evidence suggesting that this is true in agriculture and, perhaps, plenty of other sectors too. Perhaps Chris Dillow, whose bailiwick this is, can shed some light on this? So, for that matter, may readers who run businesses themselves.
*Of course this could suggest that these Britons would be more likely to find jobs if they moved abroad themselves (assuming comparable rationality in other labour markets). Then again, if they were prepared to contemplate that kind of thing perhaps they’d be the kind of worker who would have fewer difficulties in the British labour market too.
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