REVEALED: Britain is the top choice for jobseekers as EU delivers ‘ONE-WAY traffic’

BRITAIN’S status as the No.1 destination for workers from other EU countries is confirmed by a survey published today.

New research shows foreign jobseekers are far likelier to want to come here than anywhere else.

The UK is three times more sought after than even the next most popular choices, France and Germany. Experts said Europe was “delivering the UK one-way traffic” as British workers seem the most reluctant to seek jobs elsewhere.

One said: “The average Briton is considerably less likely to want to work in Europe than the average European wants to work here.”

The survey by global job site Indeed analysed tens of millions of employment searches by people in the so-called EU15 group of older member states. It found a massive 37 per cent of those who searched for work in one of the group’s other 14 countries looked at opportunities in Britain.

"Unless we vote for Brexit we will continue to see an oversupply of workers in the labour market" — Jane Collins, Ukip

By comparison only 12 per cent signalled an interest in working in France or Germany. Ukip’s employment spokeswoman Jane Collins said: “This shows there is still a huge pull factor for EU workers to come to Britain, which the new Living Wage will only increase as there have been no changes to free movement within Europe.

“Despite David Cameron’s claims to have achieved reform for Britain’s relationship with the EU we can see the lure of a high minimum wage, tax credits and housing benefit makes the UK the No1 location.

“Unless we vote for Brexit we will continue to see an oversupply of workers in the labour market, pushing up domestic unemployment, pushing down wages and increasing the pressure on already buckling schools, hospitals and housing.

"But it also shows that when we are able to control our own borders we will still see highly skilled workers wanting to come to Britain.”

Indeed analysed job searches in the first nine months of 2015 from people in the EU15’s members Britain, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

It is not known how many searches eventually led to actual applications, offers or moves. The UK also had stronger than average interest from non-European countries including America, India and Australia.

The report suggested British workers’ reluctance to move abroad in return was linked to our relatively healthy jobs market.

Economist Mariano Mamertino said: “Freedom of movement is one of the EU’s central tenets but according to this research Europe is delivering the UK one-way traffic.”

Brexit campaigners also seized on figures yesterday from the Eurostat organisation revealing that unemployment in the eurozone in February was 10.3 per cent – more than double the UK’s latest rate.

Figures for some individual nations were even higher, at over 20 per cent in Spain and 12 in Italy. Employment Minister Priti Patel said: “The UK labour market is one of the strongest in the world.”