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13 October 2021

Dear John xxxxxx,

From long lines for fuel in the United Kingdom due to challenges recruiting truck drivers to prolonged difficulties finding workers for the hospitality industry in France, Germany, and elsewhere, acute labour shortages in a variety of sectors risk halting European economic recovery in its tracks.

While many of these shortages are not new, the COVID-19 pandemic has made them worse. Businesses that had to lay off employees early in the public-health crisis are struggling to hire and train anew. And the pandemic upended the supply of available workers, with many changing professions in search of better opportunities and with some immigrants electing to return to their country of origin.

A new Migration Policy Institute Europe commentary explores the emergence of these labour shortages in industries from seasonal agricultural work to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and offers recommendations for how migration policy can complement broader efforts to boost productivity and economic competitiveness.

'Evidence suggests that immigration can play a role in addressing labour market needs, both now as employers struggle to fill vacancies, and in the medium to long term to address emerging skills gaps', Policy Analyst Kate Hooper writes. 'But immigration policy decisions should not happen in isolation from efforts to ensure decent working conditions and competitive wages for all workers or to equip workers to navigate fast-changing labour markets'.

Read the commentary here: www.migrationpolicy.org/news/labor-shortages-pandemic-immigration-policy-role.

And for a fuller look at employment and migration in the wake of the pandemic, please see our recent report by MPI Europe founder and Distinguished Transatlantic Fellow Demetrios G. Papademetriou: www.migrationpolicy.org/research/managing-pandemic-aftermath-economies-jobs-international-migration.

Best regards,

Michelle Mittelstadt
Director of Communications,
MPI Europe
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