“These figures highlight a continuing trend of increasing numbers of non-EU workers offsetting the fall in the supply of workers from the EU. It's a mystery how the number of non-EU workers is increasing when there are so many restrictions being placed on the visa limit for recruiting highly-skilled non-EU workers.
"However, the sharp increase in the number of citizens from Asia suggests that employers are going to greater lengths to address rising recruitment difficulties by using loopholes such as ancestral visas and the intra-company transfer scheme. The need for more employers to undertake a thorough workforce planning exercise should move from amber to red before their range of options become even more limited.
"The data also underlines the need for the Government’s post-Brexit immigration policy for EU workers to align more closely with non-EU immigration policy. This would ensure simplicity and also enable employers to continue to access the skills and people they need if they can’t find the workers they need in the UK.”