🥦Across the UK, vegetables are rotting in the fields, yet supermarket shelves are bare.
Despite falling numbers of immigrants looking for work in the UK, Brits aren’t filling the gaps.
@Telegraph sent a reporter to find out why 👇
telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/1…
Despite falling numbers of immigrants looking for work in the UK, Brits aren’t filling the gaps.
@Telegraph sent a reporter to find out why 👇
telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/1…
Last year, with the pandemic preventing people entering the UK, David Simmons realised he would have to find local people to work on his farm in Cornwall.
📞After ringing every applicant, only 37 turned up for the induction. After 7 weeks of picking, just one worker was left
📞After ringing every applicant, only 37 turned up for the induction. After 7 weeks of picking, just one worker was left
💸"This is surprising when you consider the pay: if you work hard enough, you can get up to £30 an hour picking vegetables on Simmons’ farm, which works out to more than £62,000 a year pro-rata"
⏲️"I arrive at 8am, by which time the Russian and Ukrainian team I meet have already been out for two hours"
"After half an hour I have already worked up a sweat: there is no denying that doing this for eight hours a day, five or six days a week, would be exhausting"
"After half an hour I have already worked up a sweat: there is no denying that doing this for eight hours a day, five or six days a week, would be exhausting"
Part of the reason wages are increasing for jobs like this is because the supply of lower-skilled workers is itself exhausted.
But a mixture of Covid and post-Brexit changes to work visas meant that, last year, immigration became net negative for the first time in a generation
But a mixture of Covid and post-Brexit changes to work visas meant that, last year, immigration became net negative for the first time in a generation
"But if foreign-born workers aren’t doing these jobs, why aren’t the one and a half million unemployed Brits applying for them?"
📉The shortage of British manual workers could be down to a long-term trend of increasing education levels.
In 1980, just 15% of people were in full-time education after the age of 18, but today, more than half are still studying at that age
In 1980, just 15% of people were in full-time education after the age of 18, but today, more than half are still studying at that age
🎓With greater education comes an expectation of higher-skilled employment – which means a graduate is far less likely to take manual work, even if it pays well
👩🌾To Laura Bereznidvaite, a supervisor on Simmons’ farm, British attitudes towards manual work are completely baffling.
She came to the UK 13 years ago, from Lithuania.
🗣️“People [in the UK] want to do fun, posh things – but what will we eat if no one is in the fields?”
She came to the UK 13 years ago, from Lithuania.
🗣️“People [in the UK] want to do fun, posh things – but what will we eat if no one is in the fields?”
The situation could have severe consequences for the British agricultural sector.
🥕This year, Simmons estimates that he had to leave vegetables worth upwards of £500,000 to rot in the fields, having been unable to recruit enough staff to pick them
🥕This year, Simmons estimates that he had to leave vegetables worth upwards of £500,000 to rot in the fields, having been unable to recruit enough staff to pick them
Read the full story ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/1…
telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/1…
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