Key points:

  • In the three months to March, 3.8% of searches for UK jobs came from abroad, below the longer-term average of 4.2% seen since the start of 2019.
  • Foreign interest in higher-paying roles, including several engineering and tech occupations, has fallen the most.
  • Interest from job seekers in India has fallen the most over the past year, while interest from US job seekers has risen the most.

Foreign interest in the UK labour market has fallen back in recent months, reversing the growth seen post-pandemic. That may reflect a combination of a subdued job market (UK job postings are trending weaker than in peer economies) and the continuing impact of tighter immigration policies. 

Around 3.8% of all searches for UK jobs on Indeed were from abroad in the three months to March 2025, down from 5.7% last September and lower than the 6.3% peak in September 2023. The latest figure is slightly below the average seen since the start of 2019 (4.2%). 

Line chart titled “Foreign interest in UK jobs has dipped” shows the trend in searches from abroad as a share of all UK searches from 2017 to 2025. The foreign search share has dipped in recent months to 3.8% in March 2025. 
Line chart titled “Foreign interest in UK jobs has dipped” shows the trend in searches from abroad as a share of all UK searches from 2017 to 2025. The foreign search share has dipped in recent months to 3.8% in March 2025. 

The outbound share of searches (those searches directed abroad by jobseekers based in the UK) is low — just 0.2% — and hasn’t changed significantly in recent years. 

The drop in foreign interest has been centred on higher-paid occupations like engineering, tech and healthcare. That’s despite those types of jobs being more likely than lower-paying occupations to meet the increased salary threshold for a skilled worker visa. 

Table titled “Tech, engineering and healthcare jobs see drop in foreign interest” shows the foreign click shares with the biggest year-on-year declines by occupational category in the period from 1 Jan 2025 to 31 Mar 2025. Electrical engineering saw the biggest drop. 
Table titled “Tech, engineering and healthcare jobs see drop in foreign interest” shows the foreign click shares with the biggest year-on-year declines by occupational category in the period from 1 Jan 2025 to 31 Mar 2025. Electrical engineering saw the biggest drop. 

The biggest drop in foreign click share has been from India (-5.2 percentage points), followed by South Africa, Pakistan, Ghana and Zimbabwe. 

Table titled “Indian jobseekers are less interested in UK jobs” shows the countries with the biggest year-on-year declines in foreign click share from 1 Jan 2025 to 31 Mar 2025. India had the biggest drop at -5.2 percentage points. 
Table titled “Indian jobseekers are less interested in UK jobs” shows the countries with the biggest year-on-year declines in foreign click share from 1 Jan 2025 to 31 Mar 2025. India had the biggest drop at -5.2 percentage points. 

Conversely, the share of foreign clicks from the US has increased (+2.4 percentage points), followed by Australia, France, Italy and Spain. 

Table titled “US click share has increased” shows the countries with the biggest year-on-year growth in foreign click share from 1 Jan 2025 to 31 Mar 2025. The US had the biggest rise with 2.4 ppts. 
Table titled “US click share has increased” shows the countries with the biggest year-on-year growth in foreign click share from 1 Jan 2025 to 31 Mar 2025. The US had the biggest rise with 2.4 ppts. 

Methodology 

This analysis focuses on countries where Indeed has a website, where searches or clicks are recorded, and on the countries of the user’s IP location. This is relevant for defining domestic and cross-border searches and clicks. A domestic search is conducted by a user whose IP location is in the same country as the Indeed website where they conducted the search. A cross-border search is conducted by a user located in a different country than the Indeed website used to perform the search. A click is the user’s action of clicking on a job listing in the search results, which opens the full job description. We interpret this as a demonstration of interest in a specifically listed position. As with searches, click data is anonymised and cannot be linked to users.