UK IMMIGRATION NEWS

UK Immigration Needed to Address Highly Skilled Workers Shortage

Tuesday, 10 June 2008

A recent report from the Work Foundation London revealed that the UK will need to attract more highly skilled workers from overseas for its high technology and "knowledge intensive" industries.

The report describes the UK's current number of skilled workers (approximately 167,000) as "relatively low", fuelling the need to look offshore for more skilled workers to boost the UK labour force.

According to the report, currently Indian migrants make up the majority of highly skilled migrants to the UK with 45,000 coming to the UK in the past year. This is followed by 25,000 from USA, 10,000 from the Philippines, 8,000 from South Africa and 6,500 from Australia.

Statistics show that under the previous work permit scheme, 24% of skilled migrants to the UK were ICT professionals, 13% service managers and 10% in the healthcare sector.

The report also suggests that the UK will need to look further than Europe to fill their shortages. Africa, Central and East Asia, as well as the Americas were highlighted as areas that the UK should be looking to for skilled workers.

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