UK IMMIGRATION NEWS

UK skills gap still demands overseas labour to help fill shortages

Wednesday, 25 August 2010

As the UK economy starts to recover, organisations are still looking for migrant workers and offshore outsourcing to plug the UK skills gap despite high levels of unemployment around the country.

A recent study conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and management consultancy KMPG, polled 600 organisations of which 45% indicated that they had vacancies that were proving difficult to fill from the resident labour market and were now looking overseas in a bid to fill the positions.

Gerwyn Davies, the CIPD's policy advisor and report author, commented:

"The study highlights the complex juggling act the government now faces. The proposed introduction of a migration cap comes at a time when many employers are still struggling to fill skilled vacancies - despite the high unemployment rate."

He further added:

"If a cap is introduced, therefore, it has to be gradually phased in to avoid harming UK competitiveness. Employers running global operations will be forced to offshore skilled jobs to other countries if the right skills mix in the UK cannot be found."

The survey also indicated that 21% of employers had hired migrant workers in the last three months, with 37% coming from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) and a further 17% planning further hiring of migrant workers in the months to come.

One in ten private sector organisations indicated that they planned to outsource jobs in the 12 months to June 2011 with many favouring India and China as their preferred choice for outsourcing. The most popular industries to be outsourced are call centres (55%), IT (51%) and finance (49%).

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