Challenges ahead for food & drink manufacturing as migration falls by a quarter

According to the Office of National Statistics net migration has fallen by 25% this year, largely driven by a reduction in international students and workers coming to the country.

The government will no doubt be pleased with these recent figures as there has been a focus on bringing net migration down. Over the past two years the government has set an annual limit on working visas for migrants outside of Europe; limited to 20,700 for the next two years.

Up until March 2012, the number of people entering the UK minus people leaving fell to 183,000 from 240,000 the previous year – this has been the lowest number for immigration since 2004.

The fall in migration to the UK is sure to create challenges for the food and drink manufacturing industry in particular as their workforce is historically largely reliant on migrant labour.