Immigration restrictions in Great Britain, imposed after leaving the European Union, have left the country with a shortage of 330,000 workers. Sectors with a low-skilled workforce, such as retail, hospitality, transport and storage, have been particularly hard hit by the end of the free movement of people between the UK and the EU. This was reported by the London-based think tank Center for European Reform (CER).

The UK has already lost about 1% of its workforce due to the impact of Brexit, according to think tank economists. Although leaving the EU led to an increase of 130,000 workers from outside the EU, stricter immigration rules resulted in 460,000 fewer workers coming from the EU, economists said.

The British government promised to curb the supply of cheap labor from Europe when it introduced a new immigration system after Brexit. At the time, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party was pushing to leave the European Union, but the current government is struggling to deal with the economic impact of that decision.

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The labor shortage has also contributed to the UK’s strong wage growth, making it more difficult for the Bank of England to fight inflation. “A combination of higher wages and prices and less production is likely, especially in jobs that are difficult to automate,” warned the CER economists.

Britain’s largest employers’ organization CBI asked the government in November last year to accept more skilled migrant workers to tackle the country’s economic problems. According to the organization, labor shortages lead to more stagflation. This is a situation where high inflation slows economic growth, and unemployment remains high.

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The British trade association for NFU growers also called on the government to be flexible with visa rules for foreign workers. As a result of leaving the EU, many workers, especially from Eastern Europe, have returned home and UK agriculture is heavily dependent on foreign workers.