Increasing domestic skill levels may not guarantee a reduction in overseas recruitment cautions Migration Advisory Committee Annual Report 2024
24 Dec 2024
2 min read
This blog was co-authored with Hayley Ainsworth
At the end of a busy year for immigration, the Migration Advisory Committee (“MAC”) has published its 2024 annual report, making its first comments on the government’s agenda to upskill the domestic workforce in sectors where it deems there to be an over-reliance on overseas labour.
The MAC’s report draws several notable conclusions:
- Since November 2023, Health and Care visas have ‘’dramatically'' decreased due to various new rules introduced by the Home Office, but the health and care sector continues to drive a significant number of visa applications.
- It is anticipated the changes to the immigration rules introduced by the previous government, for example in relation to increased minimum salary levels, will reduce work-related immigration further, although it is too early to predict by how much.
- Seeking to reduce net migration through skills policies is not a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and it is important to consider individual circumstances within sectors and occupations, including diagnosing whether shortages are genuinely driven by a lack of skills or are due to poor pay and conditions.
- Increasing the level of skills in the domestic labour pool does not guarantee a reduction in the reliance on the immigration system as employers will often seek the best possible candidate for a role, which may be an international recruit. Consequently, the impact of investment in skills on immigration will vary by sector and occupation.
- Migrants on the skilled worker route contribute more to the UK economy than they cost in expenditure, as the immigration rules are designed to facilitate entry for the highest-earning migrants who meet the salary thresholds under the skilled worker route.
The MAC is currently reviewing the use of business immigration routes for IT and engineering professionals, the outcome of which is likely to be a good indication of how the MAC may address the interplay between skills and immigration policy in any further sector-specific reviews.
In our earlier blog, we observed that the Home Office is continuing to receive a steady stream of sponsor licence applications, supporting the MAC’s hypothesis that, in many cases, employers are still willing to recruit from overseas to find the best candidates, regardless of the increased costs and obligations associated with sponsorship.
If you are interested in obtaining a sponsor licence, or need support in managing your licence, sponsoring workers or preparing for a compliance visit, please do get in touch.
Employers often argue that it is skills shortages that lead them to recruit using the immigration system. If this were true, the policy implication is that if the government were to reduce domestic skills shortages, work immigration would fall. In reality, it is more complex.