How to cope with Brexit: an employers’ guide

Migrants are now 11 per cent of the workforce and one in 20 workers is from the EU, writes Heather Rolfe of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). Their presence in low skilled work is particularly marked. We asked employers in low skilled sectors what free movement means to them and what they would do if the supply of migrants dried up as a result of Brexit. Such is the dependence of some employers on EU migrants that one brewery and hotel manager said he would simply ‘panic’. But most level-headed employers see a range of possibilities and in fact had put many of them into action. Here’s our guide to their options – the pros, the cons and the reality.