Ideas may spark the creation of startups but new ventures will only truly shine with the right employees. However, it seems as if recruiting talent has become tricker since the EU referendum last year as fewer European workers are confident about their chances on the British labour market, according to a new report.

Having analysed traffic on its own website from EU countries, CV-Library, the job board, has revealed that the overall number of European workers looking for jobs on these shores has dropped by 4.3% in the last 12 months. When looking at the data, it was revealed that the biggest drop came from Belgium where traffic was down by 48.2% followed by Slovenia at 27.9%. The third biggest drop could be seen in the Netherlands where 22.7% fewer workers looked for employment in the UK.

Interestingly, while countries like Romania and Austria also saw fewer workers considering a move to the UK, CV-Libary noted a boost in traffic from other countries. For instance, Latvia saw the biggest increase with traffic being up by 26.3%, followed by Finland at 9.6% and Cyprus at 9%.

But despite the fact some EU workers are seemingly still interested in opportunities on these shores, Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, believes the research could spell trouble for the British economy. Commenting on the findings, he said that the data shows that Brexit has “understandably made foreign staff think twice about coming to the country and this is sparking fears amongst businesses” as “we do not have enough talent in the UK to meet demand right now”.

Given how the confidence of EU-born talent in the British market has fallen, clarification on EU workers’ rights in post-Brexit Britain should be a priority for the government in the ongoing negotiations.