British meat sector is struggling with staff shortages

There are several industries in the United Kingdom that are in urgent need of staff. Some of these are logistics, meat processing and the catering industry. The number of vacancies has risen to over 100.000. The staff shortages have arisen due to, among other things, Brexit, the reduction of immigration and backlogs in education as a result of the corona crisis and the lack of financial resources.

Nick Allen, chief executive of The British Meat Processors Association, emphasizes that the meat sector is relying on immigrants to fill staff shortages because there are insufficient staff available domestically. "The migrants mainly come from Europe and fill 50% to 80% of the vacancies in the meat sector. As a result of Brexit, we are confronted with European workforce departures, which creates a large gap in the production capacity of the British meat sector."

The government appears to be ignoring the problem and is even paying European immigrants a bonus to leave if they have not applied for permanent residence status before June 30. This may cause the staff shortage to increase even further.

Recruit new staff
The meat sector has a shortage of, among others, butchers, trimmers, slaughterers, quality controllers, packaging operators or employees who want to work in human resources, security and cleaning. Slaughterhouses want to fill approximately 15.000 vacancies nationally. According to Allen, the industry is doing a lot to recruit new employees. From advertisements on job platforms, local job centers, colleges, career fairs to spreading information about vacancies through word of mouth.