Over 24 million people in the UK have LinkedIn profiles. We anonymise and aggregate the information from these profiles to create unique insights into workforce trends.

The LinkedIn Workforce Report is a monthly report looking at hiring and professional migration trends in the UK, and this month’s report looks at the latest data from March 2018. This is our sixth Workforce Report for the UK, and it also takes a comparative look at both data from March 2018 as well as that from the previous 12 months to benchmark our findings and identify trends.

LinkedIn’s vision is to create economic opportunity for every worker in the global workforce. We hope that the Workforce Report will be useful to our members, allowing you to better navigate your career, and to businesses and policy makers, who will be able use our insights to better inform their decisions on talent, migration, and employment.

Key Insights

Last month we identified that the UK had become a net loser of international talent for the first time since the report began. This month we’ve performed a deeper analysis of migration trends since the referendum in which the UK voted to leave the European Union. We have also included relevant insights from a survey of more than 600 recruiters and HR professionals in order to understand the experiences of talent professionals working in this changing environment.

The UK is now losing talent to the 27 other EU member states (EU27). Changes to migration flows take time, and we are only now able to see the trends since the Brexit referendum. The UK saw a net outflow of professionals to the EU27 in the first quarter of 2018 (Q1), as fewer EU27 professionals move to Britain and more professionals in the UK relocate to the EU27.

Fewer professionals from the rest of the world are moving to the UK. Over the last year professional migration from the rest of the world to the UK has gone down by 20%. The UK is still importing talent, but at a lower rate. Nearly a third (28%) of recruiters think the UK has become less attractive to candidates from the rest of the world – it appears that the perception that Britain is a place to advance your career has faltered.

London’s access to talent is declining as the capital is now losing talent to other countries. Since the referendum, the net inflow of EU talent into London has reversed and now more people in London are relocating in the EU27 than vice versa. Domestic migration into London is unchanged, and not filling the gap left by the departure of international talent. Recruiters in the capital say Brexit is having the biggest impact on hiring ability, with 54% saying it is having a ‘big’ or ‘huge’ impact – higher than any other region of the UK.

Healthcare is the sector most affected by Brexit, according to recruiters. Recruitment and HR professionals are also seeing the biggest impact of declining international talent on the Manufacturing, Construction, Finance and Education sectors.

Migration from Ireland to the UK has declined more than any other member state of the EU. The share of Irish professionals moving to the UK has fallen by 37% over the last year – more than any other European country.

Hiring nationally is down across the UK. The seasonally adjusted (S.A.) Hiring Rate across the UK was down Month on Month (MoM) in March, falling 1.2% since February and maintaining a downward trend since January. Year on Year (YoY), the hiring rate was 6% higher in March 2018 versus March last year.

Hiring was down in 6 of the UK’s 12 nations and regions in March. The S.A. hiring rate fell MoM for the second month in a row in London (–2%). Heavy snowfall in the North East (-5% MoM), North West (-5% MoM) and Wales (-10% MoM) may have had an impact on hiring activity in these regions.

The public sector led the way with the largest increases in hiring in March. There were MoM increases in the hiring rate in Education (5%) and Public administration (4%). Healthcare, however, is struggling to recover from a large fall in February. MoM falls in hiring in Energy and Mining (down 10%), Corporate Services (down 7%) and Entertainment (down 7%) also indicated that the private sector is less buoyant.

Migration