The sharp slowdown in EU migrant workers coming to Britain has pushed the hiring needs of the NHS and the wider public sector to the highest levels in seven years.

According to a poll of 2,102 employers across nine different industry sectors by the recruitment firm ManpowerGroup, which is used by the Bank of England as an early indicator for changes in the jobs market, hiring intentions in the public sector were at the highest level since 2011.

A net balance of 8% of public sector recruiters said they planned to increase staffing levels rather than make cuts over the first three months of 2019. Although the economy has slowed in recent months, the snapshot of the jobs market showed the highest rate of hiring intentions among all companies for 18 months, because of growing jobs shortages.

James Hick, the managing director of ManpowerGroup, which helps to hire several thousand GPs a year, said the number of applicants for UK jobs from the EU had “dropped off a cliff edge”.

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The prime minister, Theresa May, has promised to increase spending on the NHS by about £20bn by 2023-24. But the health service has been suffering staff shortages as many workers have chosen to leave after years of austerity and fewer EU migrant workers have been coming to the UK.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research said in November that, over the 12 months since the EU referendum, the number of EU workers joining the NHS fell by 17.6%, while the number who left the service rose by 15.3%.

Hick said: “You can continue to spend [as] much money as you like but if people aren’t there willing to work then there’s going to be a difficult situation. One thing that will stem that is being competitive in pay, and of course the NHS is handcuffed by pay structures.”