EU-born workers flee UK in greatest numbers since end-2011

EU-born workers likely sweating their post-Brexit futures in the UK fled the country at the end of 2016 in numbers not seen in five years.

Office for National Statistics figures revealed the number of EU-born workers in the UK in the quarter to 31 December, 2016, had declined by 50,000 to 2.3m.

Evidence of the fall, which came alongside stable employment data and a drop-off in wage growth, comes just days after another report revealed UK companies have been fretting about a labour shortage.

Barely eight months ago the UK voted to quit the EU in a non-binding and widely contentious referendum. As a direct result, sterling has plunged to depressing depths.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has repeatedly said from the soapbox that she wanted to guarantee the rights of EU citizens in the UK, but has so far failed to produce results.

She is set to begin formal Brexit talks with the EU in March, by triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

It is against this backdrop that the ONS results were set, but the UK statistics gatekeeper did warn that the fall of 50,000 was not seasonally adjusted and should be treated with caution.

Meantime, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said earlier this week that skills shortages were "starting to bite" in sectors that employed a high ratio of EU nationals.

CIPD further warned of hiring challenges, more so if UK shifts its immigration policies after quitting the EU.

Overall, the total of EU workers in the UK was up almost 190,000 over the past 12 months, but had more than doubled over the past decade.

ONS senior statistician David Freeman pointed out that data on non-UK nationals and non-UK born workers is not seasonally adjusted, "so the small drop in the number of workers born in other EU countries, and small rise in the number of non-EU-born workers should be treated with caution".

He said the first migration figures that include a post-referendum period will be published on 23 February, when ONS will release migration statistics for the year ended September 2016.