For the Brexit-related component of worker shortage: It's a mix of workers leaving and choosing not to come back, many of them full-year not just seasonal, as w

For the Brexit-related component of worker shortage: It's a mix of workers leaving and choosing not to come back, many of them full-year not just seasonal, as well as workers that would like to come back temporarily to plug the gap, but aren't permitted even for skills-shortage roles. Brexit and changing social attitudes have indeed put many off the UK, making other EU countries more attractive destinations. But there are still some people who would return temporarily for seasonal work if it was permitted. This is not just the "low-paid, unskilled fruit picker" types of jobs, that are sometimes headlines. It is also skilled jobs that require considerable training and are paid well. Example: Industry has been crying out to allow truck drivers from the EU to come to the UK, under the same "skills shortage" short-term visas that are allowed for some other sectors. A number of these involve driving routes on both sides of the UK-EU border, too, so it would make sense from that perspective as well. The government has said no, they must hire British workers for those roles. But they know it isn't possible in the short term, as it takes about 9 months of training. The government saying "just hire British workers today" when they know perfectly well that's not possible to comply with, is typical for this government in many areas, imho. The shortage is obvious when shopping now. Common items you think of as in perpetual oversupply are currently out of stock, from normally well-managed supermarkets. For example, I can't buy any size pack of Coke Zero cans for delivery from the biggest supermarket Tesco. This is a popular item in the UK, and Tesco have a reputation for great logistics. Same for about a third of the other items on my regular items list. That's due to the truck driver shortage. Wages have increased tremendously (about 3x I think) for those roles this year. It's now a decent wage, more than a lot of people are earning, and they still can't be filled. So there's a genuine skills shortage in the UK, and people outside would do the jobs even temporarily while British workers were training, if it were permitted.