(VOVworld)- More than a quarter of British employers believe that the EU nationals they employ are considering leaving their jobs and possibly the UK in 2017 in the wake of last year’s Brexit vote.  This is creating significant problems in sectors heavily reliant on migrant workers.

Packing up and leaving: sectors relying on non-UK labour to fill positions will face recruitment challenges. Photograph: Photofusion/REX/Shutterstock

According to a survey of 1,000 employers by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 43% of employees in education and 49% of health sector employees are considering leaving the UK. By the end of last year, about 45% of vacancies were in the retail, wholesale, manufacturing, health, accommodation and food services industries. Gerwyn Davies, labour market adviser for the CIPD, said that the number of EU nationals working in the UK have shrunk since Britain’s decision to leave the EU.  The situation forced companies which rely on migrant workers to find a way to fill the vacancies and rethink their training strategies as they adjust to having fewer EU workers.

The current situation contrasts with last year when a record 2.15 million EU workers worked in the UK, with France, Italy, and Spain accounting for the largest number, followed by Romania and Bulgaria.

In October, 2016, British Chancellor Phillip Hammond said European bankers and "highly-skilled" businessmen and women will be exempted from migration curbs after Britain leaves the European Union. This raises the prospect that highly skilled workers in other sectors like doctors, IT specialists, and managers could also be protected from migration curbs. Hammond said the government will not take measures that affect banks and large companies because that would be detrimental to the economy. He said the government will consider appropriate measures to control the number of migrant workers in the agricultural sector.

Migrant workers account for 10.6% of the UK’s labor force. EU migrants contributed more than 3.6 billion USD a year to the UK economy.