More software development and programming jobs have been recommended by a public body to the UK government. The proposition comes in the form of a change in the government immigration policy to include these jobs in the shortages occupation list which will make it simpler for the UK employers to bring in skilled workers in the European Union.
In the recent review of the Shortage Occupation List (Migration Advisory Committee, May 2019), it has been recommended to increase the roles related to programming and software development, specifically web designing roles (as the UK employers are facing issues in recruiting competent people for the roles). This will not only boost startups but also online and mobile casino industries in the UK. Besides this, the IT and entertainment industry as a whole will greatly benefit from the review.
Currently, the SOL is not only targeted towards these job roles but mentions the effects of these jobs that it can have in the society if they are in shortage. Other than that, the SOL contains the situations for responses and how to bring the situations together for health occupations, engineering operations, science professionals, education occupations, artistic and creative occupations, business, finance, managers and other comparisons. A separate shortage occupation list for devolved administrators have been added including the representatives and organisations needed to call for relative fast-tracking through the immigration system.
According to Alan Manning, “Unemployment is lower and employers in various industries are facing difficulties in finding skilled people to fill their vacancies. That is why we have recommended expanding the SOL to cover a range of occupations in health, information and engineering fields...Today’s labour market is very different to the one we reviewed when the last SOL was published in 2013.”
Nowadays, UK employers have to run resident labour market test where they have to advertise the worker’s role for a time period and retain the proof of their availability. Although the process has proved satisfactory, it adds cost to hire the migrants, manage their delays as well as increases the risk of compliance. The review can also allow ‘shortage jobs’ to be prioritised that are less affected by the migration caps (such as monthly visa quotas). Mobile gaming is booming in the UK. The increasing prospect of programming jobs will not only help the gaming industry but also expand the country’s talent base.
Despite the benefits of the proposal of SOL for MAC’s proposed expansion, it still means that it would replace the current 1% jobs of the UK market with 9%. The point that needs to be noted is that this 9% does not only contain IT people but also doctors, architects, managers, and teachers. Within the recommendation, there is also a condition which mentions the restricted recruitment of chefs to take away services like JustEat and Deliveroo. These services have been expanding their range of eateries by hiring skilled chefs for their startups.
After reports have shown that immigration has fallen to a five-year point law in Britain. It is preparing a review in response to include archaeologists, people related to the mobile gaming industry, architects to vets and web developers. As Britain is preparing to leave the European Union, this is its response to the unrestricted independent worker movement between the 28 member states.
The government has always aimed at keeping the migration amount below 100,000 every year but it has struggled in the past. Since 2009, more than 30,000,000 foreigners have moved permanently to Britain. At the referendum of 2016 to leave the Europea Union, this was the main point of concern among the voters. However, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) after reviewing the job shortages in five years said that the economy of Britain had progressed since 2013 and sank to its lowest since 1975. The expansion comes from the wider IT and health sector jobs.
Businesses have urged the government to welcome the recommendation and lift the cap from high skilled immigrants. As per the spokesperson of the home office, “We are grateful to the Migration Advisory Committee for a very comprehensive report. We will consider it carefully and respond in due course.” With the ongoing uncertainty of Brexit, it remains to be seen what the future holds for the country’s immigration prospects.