TORONTO — A job search website says many United Kingdom residents have started looking for jobs abroad in the wake of the Brexit vote and Canada is high on their destination wishlist.
Indeed.com says the number of U.K. queries for jobs in Canada was over four times the average in the 48 hours following the vote to withdraw from the European Union.
The site says the total number of searches for work abroad was 73 per cent higher than average on the day after the vote.
Searches for jobs in Europe doubled, while searches for jobs in the United States were 1.7 times higher than average.
Indeed.com says interest in jobs in Ireland and Australia also increased.
Canada's former high commissioner to the U.K. says he is not surprised so many Brits are looking for a way out, as Brexit casts a shadow of uncertainty over British markets and investments.
"The future investment (ability) of employers in Britain is going to be hampered and reduced and decline, and there will therefore be fewer jobs in Britain," said Mel Cappe, now a professor of public policy at the University of Toronto.
"If you're in Britain and you work in a precarious job, you want to look around and you want to be at the beginning, not at the end of the queue."
Cappe added that with English as an official language and a similar legal system, Canada is a logical choice for U.K. residents.
