It appears workers in the UK are looking for the door after the country voted to leave the EU. Office Genie analysis of Google Trends data found weekly searches for ‘work in the EU’ are up 243% following the June 23rd vote (compared to the average for the previous 52 weeks).
Similar searches relating to a number of countries have seen sharp spikes. Iceland led the way: There was an increase of 132% for ‘work in Iceland’ searches. Norway (122%) and Switzerland (108%) rounded of the top three most popular countries for escapee workers.
While these top countries were all non-EU states, countries in the Union still saw an increase: France was the most popular, with searches up 63%, while Italy and Spain both saw searches rise 30%. Germany rounded off the top 10 with searches up 16%.
There were also increases for Canada (up 62%), New Zealand (46%) and Singapore (39%).
Peter Ames, Head of Strategy at OfficeGenie.co.uk, said “There was much fear of a ‘brain drain’ post-Brexit. With dramatic increases in the number of people looking at how they could continue to work in the EU, or elsewhere abroad, it looks as if these fears were well founded.”
“Most interestingly, all the most popular countries are non-EU members. So it's not all good news for fans of the Union; people might be concerned about life working in other EU countries now Britain is leaving.”
“Of course the greatest irony in all this, is that a leave vote fuelled by campaigning around immigration, is causing many workers in this country to look abroad themselves.”
For those who are looking to make a post-Brexit career move – check out our guide to working across the world.
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