The number of Romanians applying for jobs in the UK has almost doubled since temporary European Union labour restrictions were lifted at the beginning of the year, according to Tjobs, reports romania-insider.com.

Since 1 January 2014, the Romanian job portal, which hosts more than 200 recruitment agencies, has registered 42,562 applications for UK-based jobs from an estimated 23,000 jobseekers. This is compared to 18,369 applications lodged by about 11,708 jobseekers in the first three months of 2013.

The rise makes Britain, by far, the top preference for Romanian job hunters, with the UK receiving more than double the amount of applications lodged for work in Germany, which tallied 15,157.

Meanwhile, recruiters from the UK have ramped up hiring in the eastern European country, posting 31,588 vacancies on the site between January and March, up from 19,622 in the first quarter of last year.

Offers to work in Britain outpaced the rest of Europe, double the amount of vacancies advertised in Greece (14,603) and more than triple the amount originating from Germany (8,745).

According the Tjob’s figures, the most advertised jobs were in hotels and tourism (4,787), domestic assistant/babysitter (3,629), healthcare (3,236), agriculture (2,374), and restaurant/catering (1,725).

In terms of the most applied for jobs; hotels and tourism again topped the list (5,110), followed by restaurant/catering positions (2,551), elderly care (1,646), domestic assistant/babysitter (1,638) and healthcare (1,410).