Hardly any of the recent migrants arriving in Europe from war-torn areas such as Libya or Syria have been integrated in the labor market, according to Jacques van den Broek, chief executive of the Randstad Group.
In 2015, 1.3 million people sought asylum in Europe, according to Eurostat figures. The majority come from Syria, with Afghanistan and Iraq following closely behind. Germany received the highest number of asylum seekers; more than 476,000 applicants in 2015.
However, these migrants have yet to be processed so that they can seek work.
"It's a very lengthy procedure… the procedure might last up to one and a half years even so it's very tough," Van den Broek, who heads the Dutch global human resources consulting firm, told CNBC on Tuesday. "I can't even give you a real feedback on the quality and employability of these people so it's really early days."
Europe is trying to curb the number of further asylum seekers. In the U.K., a campaign to accept 3,000 child refugees was voted down by the Conservative party on Monday.
And last month, the European Union made a controversial deal with Turkey to return migrants to the country if they had not made legitimate asylum requests. Over the weekend, European Council president Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited a refugee camp in Turkey, where Tusk praised the deal.
However, fewer than 0.1 percent of Syrians in Turkey currently stand to gain the right to work under Turkish labor laws, reported The Guardian newspaper.
Since the Vietnam War, the U.S. has resettled 3 million refugees, according to UNHCR.