Only one in 50 job applicants at Pret a Manger is British

High street sandwiches and coffee chain Pret a Manger only receives one job application from a British person in every 50 put forward, indicating the staffing struggles UK business could face from Brexit if the recent exodus of European Union nationals continues.

Speaking in front of the House of Lords economic affairs select committee, business groups said the need for EU workers had grown in recent years because young Brits were shunning low paid jobs due to their lofty aspirations.

Andrea Wareham, Pret's human resources boss, said that 65% of its workforce comes from European Union countries not including Britain.

Wareham spoke to the committee in order to warn against the implications that Brexit will have on the sector's employees if EU nationals are frozen out at the end of the two-year process.

"I would say that one in 50 people that apply to our company to work is British," the HR boss said.

"If I had to fill all our vacancies in British-only applicants I would not be able to fill them... because of a lack of applications," she added.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development said last month that skills shortages were "starting to bite" in sectors that employed a high ratio of EU nationals.

Not taking our jobs?

The UK decided to leave the European bloc last June following a divisive referendum in which immigration was a key issue. Many Brexit voters expressed concerns that too many jobs had been taken by EU nationals.

Wareham rubbished that claim however and the suggestion that low pay was an issue, as she suggested not many British citizens were prepared to work in the service industry.

"I actually don't think increasing pay would do the trick, I can only talk for Pret on this, but we do pay well above the National Living Wage, we do have great benefits and we offer fantastic careers," she said.

"It really is a case of do people want to work in our industry?"

Prime Minister Theresa May has said that she will kickstart the Brexit process this month, beginning two years of complex negotiations with European powers. It remains to be seen how migrants in the UK will be affected by the departure.

Last month official data showed 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.

Young people's 'bizarre attitude to work'

The CIPD has also warned of hiring challenges 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.

One reason for the demand for overseas workers is that companies find them not just more reliable and willing to start 'at the bottom', but willing to work in the first place.

The select committee was told that the problem was "all about young people’s aspirations", said Kirsty McHugh from the Employment-Related Services Association.

“It is not because EU nationals have taken the jobs, it is [because of] a big focus on working at schools, raising aspirations - they want to go into good jobs, they don’t think they want to go into a job they see as a dead end.”

Martin McTague from the Federation of Small Businesses said: “A lot of our members say that when they recruit someone who is academically well qualified, they have a bizarre attitude to the working environment because they’re not used to doing it."

But the committee was told that supply of EU workers in some sectors was already "completely drying up", with workers increasingly reluctant to move to Britain as the collapse pound has cut the euro value of their earnings, and because the government has yet to make clear the status of EU workers post-Brexit.