Can robots really plug the workforce shortage left by Brexit?

Migration was quite a big deal, Brexit-wise, but six years on, and two after the end of free movement, what has been the impact? The level of net migration certainly hasn't fallen, but a new report from Jonathan Portes and John Springford argues that if you focus on workers, the end of freedom of movement has left about 330,000 fewer in Britain (460,000 fewer Europeans, but 130,000 more from elsewhere). That's a reduction of roughly 1% of the labour force, prompting many to say that a lack of migration drove recent economy-wide labour shortages. This is overstated (hiring difficulties have been common across Europe), but fewer available workers will have contributed to the hiring challenges in lower-paying sectors that were previously reliant on EU workers (and where the authors show the workforce reduction is concentrated). The important question is what happens next.