The According to a recent report from Indeed, the world’s no. 1 job site, Canada and UK have gained in popularity amongst international job seekers, including Indians. While there has been a substantial fall in the share of searches for jobs in the United States, presumably owing to its immigration policies, a major portion of international jobseeker interest has been picked up by Canada and the UK. The searches are primarily for high paying roles in technology, research and finance.
The SHIFT
The more welcoming immigration policies in Canada and the recent developments in UK immigration policies following Brexit have made them popular choices among international job-seekers. In fact, the open immigration policy at Canada has become the alternative for Indians, as well as jobseekers from other Latin countries too. Through visa programmes like Express Entry and Global Skills, the country has been opening avenues to skilled foreign workers. Global trends affecting political developments pose challenges to the workforce but also lead to more opportunities for employment. The expansions of such policies seek to deliver growth and meet the aspirations and expectations of Indian labour by providing work opportunities in other countries.
Data from Indeed indicates that Indian job-seekers are exploring opportunities in Canada nearly twice as much as they did two years ago with a massive shift in cross-border searches from the US to Canada. Between the periods of August 2016 – July 2018, the US share of job searches from India fell from 60% to 50%, while there was a rise in searches for Canada from 6% to 13%.
Alternatively, the UK has the potential to keep its position as a global tech and banking magnet in a post-Brexit world, provided its migration policy is flexible to accommodate an internationally mobile workforce. Since 2015, jobseekers based in other countries accounted for between 8% and 10% of the overall job applications for tech jobs in the UK.
It was recorded that the maximum number of people looking for jobs in the UK were from India, the US and France, followed by Poland and Ireland. As a group, Indian job seekers are highly focused on tech in their job searches — almost one-fifth of all clicks on the UK-based jobs from India are related to tech roles.
The Demand
While looking for employment abroad, there is greater demand for jobs in the STEM sector, especially for niche roles. Given the rate at which Canada is booming in terms of technology, the number of foreign applications the country is receiving has been massive, not just due to the immigration policy, but also the growth potential offered by the technology industry. When it comes to the UK, data indicates that jobs which involve technology, finance and language are popular with foreign job-seekers.