Britain has a shortfall of 330,000 skilled workers because of Brexit, a new study says.

The UK’s exit from the European Union in 2020 led to an increase in immigration from non-EU countries, but not enough to compensate for the loss of workers from neighbouring countries, according to a new report from the two tanks, ‘Centre for European Reform (CER)’ and ‘UK in a Changing Europe’.

The study looked at recent Office for National Statistics figures that showed an overall reduction in net immigration of 540,000 to June 2022.

The report also used the ONS annual population survey to help model what the UK workforce would have looked like had freedom of movement not come to end and British immigration laws remained the same.

The post-Brexit points system immigration system has, by design, made it more difficult for those without qualifications to move to the UK to work, the report says.

The system came into force in January 2021 and by June 2022 there was a shortfall of 460,000 EU workers, the research found.

The arrival of 130,000 non-EU workers cushioned the blow but did not close the gap, leaving “large shortfalls” in six key sectors.

Transport and warehousing was worst hit, with a reduction of 128,000 of EU workers, or 8 per cent of total employment in that sector.

In wholesale and retail, the drop amounted to 3 per cent, or 103,000 EU workers, while in the hospitality and food sector it was 4 per cent, or 67,000.

Manufacturing and construction were down 2 per cent each, and there was a decline of 32,000 EU workers in administrative and support areas.

“In more skilled sectors, such as healthcare, education and ICT, an increase in non-EU workers more than compensated for losses of those from the EU,” the report found.

The research, entitled ‘Early Impacts of the Post-Brexit Immigration System in the UK Labour Market’ comes after senior business figures called on the UK government to lure back EU workers.

And recent reports by a House of Lords committee and the Bank of England warned that the UK’s shrinking labour force and soaring number of job vacancies since the start of the COVID pandemic was putting the economy at risk of weaker growth and persistently higher inflation.

Factors behind the trend include loss of freedom of movement, but also the disappearance of many people over the age of 50 from the workforce.