Professional Poles help fill UK Financial Services Skills Gap

Poland is not only supplying Britain with a large force of low wage workers. Increasing numbers of Polish professionals are also moving to the UK. New research from recruiter Joslin Rowe shows how the number of Polish accountants registering for work has risen sixfold since 2003 (the last full year before Poland joined the European Union in May 2004).

In the first two years of Polandís EU membership, 270,000 Poles registered to work in the UK, although many more have arrived without registering. 60,000 registered in London. Joslin Roweís figures show that 3,425 of these were accountants, 5.7% of the total. Scotland has been slower to pick up on the trend. Just 1.3% of the 32,000 Polish arrivals North of the Border are accountants, although the numbers are accelerating. Figure 1 shows the annual numbers of accountant arrivals over the last five years for London and Scotland.


Figure 1: Polish Accountants (2006 projection based on Jan-Aug figures)

Tara Ricks, Managing Director of Joslin Rowe Associates said: ëThere is a chronic shortage of qualified accountants in the UK. British firms are crying out for staff. The introduction of International Accounting Standards, an increasing burden of regulation, and a rising emphasis on corporate governance have boosted demand dramatically and pushed salaries up accordingly. We simply donít have enough home grown accountants to fill the void and this is creating opportunities for those from overseas. Scotland has taken a bit longer to catch on to the Eastern European trend, but we think that it will follow Londonís lead.í

In the twelve months to the end of August 2006, there were new 32,150 accountancy jobs advertised in UK financial services. Joslin Roweís statistics suggest that Poles secured around 3% of these jobs, double the proportion in the previous twelve months and growing.

Tara Ricks continued: ëMost arrivals from Eastern Europe have opted for low paid service jobs. Polish accountants are still a relatively new phenomenon. Among employers, early adopters have already started hiring them enthusiastically, but it takes time for a new group to establish itself. We have seen this before with successive waves from the Anglosphere ñ initially Australians, then New Zealanders and most recently South Africans. After a slow start, these groups are now in high demand. Although Poles have to vault the language barrier, the introduction of International Accounting Standards is making the move to Britain much easier for them. Just like other foreign groups before them, Poles will become a key support to the UK accounting profession.í
Joslin Rowe has seen a smiliar pattern in Dublin. New Polish accountants registering in Ireland have risen 190% compared to 2005 and from almost a standing start in 2004. Although the overall numbers are naturally smaller than the UK, proportionately, Poles are twice as successful in Ireland at finding accountancy jobs than they are in the UK.