Braindrain to begin again?

I remember all the discussions about an exodus of talent from the UK to Eastern Europe in the early 1990's and wonder if we're at the start of another. Not to Europe this time, probably farther afield to China and the Middle East.

Figures out this week in the UK show two important trends emerging, largely linked to a slowdown in the economy and the financial turmoil:

1. Number of UK graduates applying to each position doubles
2. Figure joining unemployment in September at highest monthly level for 17 years

There is an article on the first point at www.onrec.com and the second point was released by the Govt this week.

I've also spoken to a lot of people recently, both recruiters themselves and candidates, who are moving abroad at ever higher rates. There really is no reversing this, other than fresh job creation but I think we'll see companies waking up to the fact that many of them still don't know who their best people are - so they don't have the chance to try and retain top performers outside of a sales environment.