Every industry must be asking the same question: how will WE be affected if Britain leaves the EU? The recruitment industry is no different, but with no one able to give definitive answers to specific questions, it’s as much in the dark as any area of enterprise.

If you listened to the ‘remain’ vote, you’d probably be scared stiff that there will be no jobs needing to be filled, post-exit. Plunged into a recession of our own making, so the experts say, we could go back five years, and to a shakier economy than the one we’ve strived to stabilise.

But in another area, the freedom to choose our own laws – such as our employment laws – could be a huge positive for recruitment web design. That is, if there’s not further bureaucracy to combat after the EU layer has been peeled away.

Though we may begrudge EU laws, they have brought workers some benefits. The Working Time Regulations, for example, ensures guaranteed, fair holiday pay for employees; could these rights disappear or worsen if Britain left the EU? The same applies to the Working Time Directive that limits the amount of hours worked by individuals – another example of EU safeguarding that we all take for granted. Consider also EU laws against all forms of workplace discrimination, and similar workers’ rights, and perhaps the ‘sticking its nose in where it’s not wanted’ impression many people have of the EU could change.

On the flipside, the current freedom of movement laws that give EU members the right to live and work in Britain has been a storm brewing for many years now, and a situation that may worsen if votes to stay win out on June 23rd. The sheer influx of foreign workers has, according to some experts, affected wages, and brought their value down. Though a higher minimum wage law has recently been introduced, it’s the illegal labour market that’s the issue.

But what about UK citizens working abroad – would a change of law make it harder for them to gain/retain employment; would we see even higher numbers in the UK’s unemployment queue? Without the ‘black market’, would lower paid jobs really be filled by UK citizens?
It’s unlikely that any decision will be made on June 24th, whatever the outcome on the 23rd. Some changes could take years to come into force, even if they’re by our own government.

It’s the uncertainty that’s paralysing – for all industry, not just recruitment. At least that’s about to come to an end…

Original article: http://recruitmentbuzz.co.uk/brexit-price-uncertainty/