[cmdkeen]

While I appreciate Brexit hasn't happened yet there's little to no evidence yet of any exodus of highly skilled workforces. London remains an incredibly attractive destination for inflows of both investment, workers and tourists. Will some companies leave, no doubt, however the high profile mass departure of European HQs and banks has yet to bear out.

To the OP, and going back to the article, a major issue is that of services, our major export. The EU does not have a single market in services, and has shown little interest in progressing it. It isn't so much Deutsche Bank as the mittelstand that demonstrates that the EU as a whole favours particular economic systems. Italy is a prime example of a sclerotic services sector that their own government has failed to reform, despite the EU being willing and able to influence the appointment of Mario Monti it isn't willing to impose a free market in service in the same way it has for goods - and stand up to blatant protectionism.

[gambiting]

This is purely anecdotal, of course, but our company which is a large software developer in the UK, is facing a lot of difficulty hiring from EU(candidates drop out citing Brexit half way through the process too) and we already had several EU employees leaving specifically because they don't want to live in UK anymore due to perceived hostility of Britain towards them. We also work with a local Russel group university and I know for a fact that after the referendum, number of applicants for PhD positions in CS from EU countries has dropped down from an average of 160 applications/year, to....3 applications last year. Everything that is happening is monumentally bad, but I think UK won't see some of the bad effects for years which of course makes everyone think it's absolutely fine.

[nkkollaw]

> there's little to no evidence yet of any exodus of highly skilled workforces

Like I mentioned, I'm speaking from what I read and a few friends living there. My friends all left because of uncertainty (all of them are programmers).

> Mario Monti it isn't willing to impose a free market in service in the same way it has for goods - and stand up to blatant protectionism

It's not protectionism, it's corruption and/or mafia. The government is ruled by companies (much like that of the US), and the mafia. Only when you realize this the initiatives they take (or don't take) start to make sense.

[DanBC]

> there's little to no evidence yet of any exodus of highly skilled workforces

The NHS has plenty of evidence that EU workers (doctors, nurses, allied health professionals -- all skilled staff, all hard to replace from UK recruits) are leaving, and that's despite the clear assurances given by SoS Health that EU NHS staff are guaranteed to be allowed to stay.

EDIT: the guarantee of being allowed to stay was provided rather late, so many people left before it was given, but they're still leaving.

[ljf]

Indeed, here are two articles for those that are downvoting.

Brexit: One in five EU doctors make plans to leave NHS because of withdrawal - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/brexit-nhs-doctors-...

European nurses and midwives leaving UK in droves since Brexit vote - https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/nov/02/european-nur...

[DanBC]

Here's a UK government report: http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summ...

And here's a link to the NHS Digital Workforce statistics:

http://content.digital.nhs.uk/workforce

One example file is here: http://content.digital.nhs.uk/media/23993/Leavers-by-age-and...

[ljf]

And more Fears of Brexit drain as more EU27 ambulance staff quit the NHS

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/13/nhs-ambulanc...