UK visa holders fill skill shortages
by Christine M - August 31, 2010
United Kingdom, 31st August: UK visa holders are filling the gaps in the UK labor market, reveal the recent survey findings.
Firms in the UK are looking to recruit migrants and also resort to overseas outsourcing in order to fulfill the huge gap between the existing demand and extremely poor supply of required workforce in the UK. This is despite the fact that the UK is struggling to overcome a high unemployment rate in the nation.
CIPD(Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) and KMPG survey was conducted on nearly 600 firms in the UK.
Out of these firms, nearly 45 percent said that there were existing vacancies for jobs in the UK for which it was almost impossible to find the candidate with required skills and qualifications from within the country. Hence, they have no option but to look for immigrant workers to fill the shortage of skilled workers in the UK.
And nearly 21 percent of the employers in the UK who formed part of the survey admitted that they were hiring immigrants having requisite engineering skills and willing to work in the UK since only a handful of UK workers were available for the existing vacant jobs in the UK.
Moreover, around 18 percent of UK employers said that they were in the process of hiring immigrant workers possessing skills in IT, finance and accountancy since candidates having such skills were not available within the UK.
Although, the UK government has been maintaining its tough stand on introducing annual cap on UK immigration levels, while, the UK employers seem to be struggling with the shortage of workforce in the UK as the nation continues to battle overwhelming rate of joblessness. This was stated by the lead author of the report and the policy advisor of the CIPD, Gerwyn Davies.
If there is no respite from the UK government’s decision to cap annual immigrant numbers in the UK, then the competitiveness of the UK in the international market is going to be affected in a great way. In such a scenario, a likelihood available for UK firms will be to outsource jobs abroad in case the workers possessing required skills are not found in the domestic market of the UK, cautioned Davies.
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