Americans are increasingly
Almost one in 10 foreign clicks on U.K. postings came from the U.S. in the three months to March, the largest share since the second quarter of 2023, according to data from job-search website Indeed. U.S. interest in British jobs was up 2.4 percentage points year-on-year, the sharpest increase of any country.
The rise was driven by Americans looking for roles in scientific research and development, and management. The figures capture the months after Trump's return to the White House when the president slashed billions of dollars in federal funding for research and education and infrastructure projects.
Read more:
Richard White, an oncology professor at the University of Oxford who moved from New York in 2022, said he has seen signs of a brain drain from the U.S. as talent moves abroad in search of greater academic freedom and stability.
Concerns have risen following cuts to federal science projects by the Department of Government Efficiency and a broad attack on scientific research that has seen grants being canceled. This week, a government task force on antisemitism said it plans to freeze $2.2 billion of multi-year grants for Harvard University after the institution defied pressure from the Trump administration.
"Scientists are guided by what you can do and where the funding is. Traditionally, the U.S. has been strong on academic freedom and funding but, since Trump's inauguration, I've had colleagues who have had their grant panel canceled," White said. "Back in the U.S., the U.K. is now considered the stable place to do scientific research. If people have this sense that things could be more stable elsewhere, that's where they'll go."
Read more:
Since the start of the year, White has given places to two academics currently studying in America for roles at Oxford's Nuffield Department of Medicine. Several former colleagues in the U.S. have joked that he "picked the right time to move," White added.
Earlier this year, according to Politico, several EU members wrote to the EU Innovation Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva urging her to poach talent from the U.S. as it faced "research interference and ill-motivated and brutal funding cuts." France, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Spain, Slovenia, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania signed the letter.
In the U.K., preparations are already under way to welcome more American expatriates. James Chaplin, chief executive officer of analytics firm Vacancysoft, said there's a "surge in demand" for tax accountants who can help U.S. nationals file their compulsory tax returns while living in the U.K.
Read more:
Demand from American candidates has bounced back after falling in recent years "as a reflection of U.S. relative outperformance," according to Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Indeed.
The surge contrasts with job-seekers from other countries who are turning away from the U.K. Indeed's figures showed that the share of searches from abroad for U.K. roles fell below the long-term average in the first quarter, reversing the uptick recorded after the pandemic. High-paying jobs in engineering, tech and health care experienced the largest decline in foreign appetite.
"That may reflect a combination of a subdued job market and the continuing impact of tighter immigration policies," Indeed's Kennedy said.
