CIPD: 40% of Employers struggling to fill vacancies from within the EEA

The Public Policy Advisor for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Gerwyn Davies, said that “The introduction of the temporary cap has had an impact on employers’ ability to fill vacancies and improve productivity, particularly in the National Health Service (NHS). It remains questionable whether the increase in the number of employer-related visas issued by the government for the next year will be enough to address the projected increase in the demand for migrant workers. We should not forget that the UK still has skills shortages in many key areas, nor should we forget that the number of non-EU workers amounts to the tens of thousands rather than the hundreds of thousands. So while it is right to highlight our concern about rising unemployment, we should not overlook the benefits and invaluable expertise and experience that a relatively small number of non-EU workers bring to the UK economy. Keeping out skilled non-EU workers won’t help unemployed people in the UK in the near term, but could have real and negative consequences for business and the public sector”.

The UK Head of People at KPSMO, Michelle Quest, went on to say that “It is not always possible to fill vacancies from within the EU. When the specialist skills that businesses need are not available here in Europe, organisations will spread their recruitment net more widely. KPMG is already near the cap on its non-EU workforce – who add to the rich diversity of an organisation and the broad perspectives offered to clients.”

From April 6th 2011 the permanent Immigration Cap will be introduced and a new system will be implemented whereby employers apply to the UK Border Agency for a ‘Restricted’ Certificate of Sponsorship to employ a migrant worker rather than being given an allocation to use as they see fit. The new system should help to make the Immigration Cap work a lot more effectively in the future.

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 and we will get right back to you. Please see other areas of the Commonwealth Contractors site for interesting articles on tax, immigration and contracting.