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Migrant cap hurts employers again!

For a fourth consecutive month, the demand for Tier 2 Restricted Certificates of Sponsorship (RCoS) has exceeded supply and led to a large number of skilled workers being denied employment in the UK.

This information came in the same month that an interim report by the Migration Advisory Committee highlighted that UK businesses do not deliberately seek to fill vacancies with migrant workers, but they employ migrants when ‘they are the best or, sometimes, the only available candidates’.

The Home Office’s Tier 2 RCoS application process works to a monthly cycle. The total number of certificates of sponsorship available for allocation in March amounted to 1,414.  With many businesses reporting a shortage of workers since the referendum, employers across all sectors have once again missed out.

Priority allocation is given to both jobs at PhD level and those listed on the government’s shortage occupations list. Thereafter, the subsequent key consideration is the proposed level of salary being offered to the migrant worker. Only those prospective migrant workers offered a salary over £60,000 per annum secured a RCoS within the March allocation.

Although the Home Office has chosen not to declare the number of RCoS requests declined, it is likely to be in the hundreds. Less well-paid sectors, such as healthcare, education and engineering continue to suffer the most.

The government has the opportunity to reset the annual number of RCoS available and relieve the pressure on the Tier 2 system. An extra injection of these certificates would satisfy the ongoing demand from UK employers (including the NHS) who are desperate to fill specialist vacancies.

However, with the government reluctant to announce details of their new post-Brexit immigration strategy, there is very little prospect of them adopting a short-term increase to the number of certificates available for allocation.

Employers should therefore expect to face further difficulties in recruiting talented workers from outside the EEA in the months ahead.

Did you know?

Nurses have remained on the shortage occupation list since 2015. A temporary exemption from paying the £30,000 minimum rate also currently applies to this public service occupation.


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