According to Chris Gray “As UK managing director for Manpower, the recruitment agency, he is seeing British companies raise wages, pay for training, relax job requirements — in fact do almost anything “to find the arms and legs to do the job”

This is a critical time for all industries not least for the Private Security Industry. We have recently seen the effect of labour shortages on the supply chain of fuel stations. The effect of what we have seen has deep and far-reaching ramifications for the economy. Shortage of fuel is affecting every facet of life. Doing the school run, getting food to the supermarket shelves, front line workers getting to work to deliver critical services to people, the electrician or plasterer who needs to get from A to B, the security officer who needs to get to work are all affected.

In response to demand from industry leaders to get the problem resolved, government has promised to fix the problem by promising short-term visas. Short term visas will not resolve the problem. I do not think any person will want to spend thousands of pounds on processing a visa and flight to come to the UK to work for three months and be asked to go back thereafter. This policy is an exercise in futility as it will not fix the problem.

It is important government adopts a long-term strategy by thinking through its long-term immigration policy. The fact is that there is a global labour shortage not least in Europe. Countries are adopting liberal immigration policies to attract workers. This can be demonstrated by Germany when a few years ago it opened its borders for some 1m million refuges to come into the country. At the time the right in Germany thought it was a despicable idea. Today Germany has Angela Merkel to thank for this visionary and liberal policy. The newcomers have integrated, found employment, and are supporting not only the labour market in Germany but the economy.

In the UK, the population is declining but government continues to adopt restrictive and inward-looking immigration policies. This is only a recipe to exacerbate the problem, not to fix it.
We have to admit that even if the population of the UK begins to grow as consequence of people increasing their family sizes today, it will take at least 16 years for the country to start seeing its effect on the labour market.

The natural consequence of the shortage is that the cost of labour will rise, and these costs will be passed on to all of us.