Public Sector Reliant on Migrant Workers

Key points from the survey included:

• The majority of hard to fill vacancies were in the medical and engineering sectors
• 10% of surveyed companies said they planned to outsource jobs abroad in 2010
• 50% of the IT Companies surveyed said they planned to outsource jobs abroad in 2010
• 20% of Manufacturing Companies said they planned to outsource jobs abroad in 2010
• India and Eastern European Countries were the preferred outsourcing destinations

The Public Policy Advisor at the CIPD, Gerwyn Davis, said that “Despite rising unemployment, employers are still struggling to recruit the people they need and we are turning abroad to plug the gap. Through a combination of recruiting migrant workers to fill UK vacancies, or outsourcing work to locations abroad, employers are looking to strike the right balance between the skills for the job and the cost reductions needed to meet budget targets.”

UK Skill Shortages

The results of the survey will come as no surprise to many in the Immigration and skilled recruitment sectors. For years the UK Border Agency has published a Shortage Occupation List and this has been largely dominated by healthcare and engineering roles.

In relation to the Public Sector organisations being more likely to hire migrant workers than private sector organisations this may be largely due to the significant requirements of the National Health Service (NHS), which is the largest employer in Europe and one of the largest employers in the world with over 1.5 million active staff (Only the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the Wal-Mart supermarket chain and the Indian Railways directly employ more people than the NHS).

Project Outsourcing

For some years now outsourcing to offshore (e.g. India) and near shore (e.g. Poland, Russia) locations has been a popular way for Managing Directors to reduce costs, however not always improve performance. Certain areas of Information Technology are by far the easiest business functions to outsource therefore it comes as no surprise that 50% of IT Companies that responded to the survey said they planned to outsource jobs abroad in 2010.

Commonwealth Contractors

At Commonwealth Contractors we partner with OISC Registered Private Immigration Firms and Tier 2 Licensed Healthcare and IT Consultancies who may be prepared, where required, to sponsor an individual on a Tier 2 Visa (formerly UK Work Permit). If you are a highly skilled International professional and you would like to work in the UK Commonwealth Contractors can help. Our OISC Registered Partners specialise in Tier 1 General (formerly Highly Skilled Migrant Programme) visa applications and can assist those highly skilled individuals that either wish to apply or extend a Tier 1 General Visa.

For more Information call Commonwealth Contractors now on 0330 390 9021 or Submit your details now and we will get right back to you.