Employers still hiring but increasingly worried over Government Brexit plans and no wonder

A report from the Recruitment & Employment Confederation calls for clarity and for employers to be allowed to hire the people they need from the EU

The UK construction sector is heavily dependent on EU labour (GETTY IMAGES)

Today’s biggest Brexit news story is focussed on the European Court of Justice and whether the UK has opened a door to the body with its position paper stating that there is no need for it to have “direct jurisdiction” when it comes to dispute resolution.

That, of course, implies that indirect jurisdiction is acceptable, an intriguing development when it comes to a hugely important subject (trade). Ultimately, there has to be some way of resolving disputes, between the EU and Brexit Britain after doomsday, a job that the ECJ does when it comes to arguments between member states and the EU. Is this, whisper it, a sign that the Government might be contemplating compromise?

Of course, it’s all slightly academic. There won’t be a trade deal unless a number of important issues are first resolved, notably the rights of EU citizens living here.

The Government’s refusal to guarantee them (Labour and the other opposition parties have made clear that they would) is not only mean minded, leaving people who have worked here and contributed greatly to this country in an unpleasant limbo, it’s also self defeating. It not only puts the still slim chances of a sensible deal at risk. It threatens the Government’s own domestic policy aims.

The Recruitment & Employment Confederation, which represents recruitment consultants, makes this clear in its latest JobsOutlook survey and report.

It paints a mixed picture overall. On the plus side, the jobs market is still booming, with 40 per cent of employers having no spare capacity and needing to recruit to meet demand. One in five plan to increase permanent head count over the next three months. Happy days for UK plc?

Wait just a minute. They are also increasingly pessimistic - confidence in the UK economy fell to a net balance of -3 per cent last month, from +6 the previous month. Of just over employers 600 surveyed, 31 per cent expect it to deteriorate, 28 per cent think it will improve.

No prizes for guessing why gloomy feelings predominate. Brexit is causing confidence across the economy to ebb away.

But back to those rights and the need to guarantee them. It’s no secret that, even with the economy set to take a Brexit kick to the guts, certain sectors are still going to struggle without the ability to recruit EU staff.

They hospitality industry, for example, is in danger of grinding to a halt if it can’t hire from among that pool, particularly in London. You do rather wonder how the Britain’s full up brigade will react if there’s no one to serve them their pints when they go out for an evening.

Then there is the NHS, which is already feeling the squeeze when it comes to securing sufficient nursing staff to keep the show on the road. If you thought a six hour wait at A&E was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet.

The difficulties faced by the construction sector have also been much discussed, and its problems in particular are highlighted in the report.

“Businesses are continuing to hire to meet demand, but issues like access to labour, Brexit negotiations and political uncertainty are creating nervousness,” it says.

“Employers in the construction sector are especially concerned as they rely heavily on EU workers to meet the growing demand for housing and to support the government’s infrastructure plans.”

That last point is particularly notable. The May Government has made much of those infrastructure plans, its willingness to borrow to fund them, and its hope for the economic boost they will provide when Britain is cut off from the biggest single market ever created on planet earth.

And yet those plans are threatened by mulish stubbornness on the part of Ms May in particular. It is not only her refusal to provide a cast iron guarantee of the rights of EU citizens who are already here. It is also her reluctance to countenance the importation of more people when the Brexit curtain falls.

Her stance is not only ludicrous, it is utterly self defeating. Not only is her Government cutting off its own nose to spite its face when it comes to its policy aims. It is doing the same to Britain.

“The government must do more to create an environment where businesses have clarity. That means clearly laying out what Brexit plans look like and how employers can keep recruiting the people they need from the EU. The jobs market is in a good place but employers will only continue to hire and invest if they feel assured about the future,” says the Confederation.

Indeed so. But while the lights are on in Westminster and Whitehall, it doesn't appear that anyone is at home, much less listening.