• by Sean Hargrave , Staff Writer, February 19, 2020

It's a good day to be an American eyeing a career in London's adland. In fact, it's a good day to be a Canadian with the same aspiration, or a South African, Australian or New Zealander.

The UK jobs market is opening up beyond the EU -- and it's a good time to have skills that are in demand in the UK and to speak English as a native.

That may well still apply to many thousands of people outside America or the Commonwealth, but the simple truth is that it pays to speak English while holding an EU passport will no longer offer freedom of movement to work in the UK.

From 2021 onward, an American or Canadian, and so on, can fill in a job application safe in the knowledge they are not lining up behind EU applicants but rather joining the line with them, as equals -- at least when it comes to passports. 

Adland has always been distinctively relaxed about the incoming immigration rules that were announced this morning. They had been discussed for some time, and the only big difference is the criteria has shift downwards from candidates for a work visa needing to be earning above GBP30,000 to the GBP25,000 mark now. 

Hence, the Advertising Association has made it clear that it still supports and welcomes the measures. It has two understandable points to make. The first is that 2021 is not very far away, and that gives little time to bring in a new system.

Secondly, and this is a clear issue, it is calling on the Government to not only be flexible on industries such as advertising to tell it which jobs it is difficult to find the right people for -- it also wants the Government to feed this through into education bodies so more students are turning into graduates with those in-demand skills.

So it's pretty much good news all around. The only people who might find they are disadvantaged compared to before will be EU citizens with a low skills base who want to pop over to the UK and get a low-paying job and soak up the culture of London life. While this has been an automatic right, it won't be from next year onwards.

However, if you are skilled and looking for a job in advertising, it's a very good day. There was no major barrier to our American and Commonwealth friends applying for adland jobs before. The situation, however, was that it was just so much easier and quicker to fill roles instantly with EU citizens.

Now, new applicants will need to quality in the same way, whether they are from the EU or the rest of the world. That can only work in the favour on non-EU citizens. 

A job offer, a salary above GBP25,000, a role which requires skills in short demand in the UK and the ability to speak English -- those are the four things that will come together to get anyone from the rest of the world into the UK's adland scene. 

The salary cap may prove problematic for some industries, although there are workarounds and special rules on offer for medical and farm workers.

However, for adland, it's pretty much business as usual -- only with less of a reliance on EU staff and more of an open approach to those coming in from the rest of the world.

If I were a first jobber on Madison Avenue right now who had always dreamed of some time in London, I think today I would be giving myself permission to get rather excited.