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The UK is attractive to high skilled workers.

 

Laboratory
The UK has shot up an inter­na­tional rank­ing of coun­tries that are most attract­ive to highly qual­i­fied work­ers, owing to changes to the migra­tion regime intro­duced after Brexit.

The OECD said yes­ter­day that the UK had risen its «tal­ent attract­ive­ness» list faster than any other coun­try since 2019, num­ber­ing in the top 10, ahead of the US and behind smal­ler coun­tries such as Aus­tralia and New Zea­l­and that have long looked to migra­tion to boost their work­force.

Accord­ing to the Paris-based organ­isa­tion, Bri­tain had risen the rank­ings after abol­ish­ing its quota for highly skilled work­ers, and because these work­ers ten­ded to do well in the labour mar­ket.

Rel­at­ive changes like these can make a big dif­fer­ence as highly skilled work­ers are «increas­ingly in a pos­i­tion to choose the best des­tin­a­tion coun­try for them­selves and their fam­ily», the OECD poin­ted out.

The UK’s post-Brexit migra­tion regime, described in research pub­lished this week as «the biggest shake-up in half a cen­tury» of the sys­tem, was inten­ded to ease the recruit­ment of highly qual­i­fied work­ers world­wide.

Last year, net immig­ra­tion to the UK reached a record high, although this also reflec­ted inflows of refugees from Ukraine and Hong Kong, sur­ging stu­dent num­bers and an over­seas recruit­ment drive by the NHS and care sec­tor.

However, the UK’s new migra­tion sys­tem gives employ­ers who pre­vi­ously hired freely from the EU little access to visas for jobs filled by less-qual­i­fied work­ers.

After strong busi­ness lob­by­ing, min­is­ters are look­ing at relax­ing visa rules for mid-skilled roles in con­struc­tion and other sec­tors, in the con­text of wide­spread post-pan­demic labour short­ages.

Dumont said open­ing up visa routes for work­ers with mid-level qual­i­fic­a­tions would be in line with policy changes in a num­ber of other OECD coun­tries, includ­ing Ger­many and Spain.

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Comments

  1. Susan10 March 2023 at 10:47

    But there are still problems with less-qualified workers. How are those addressed?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ted10 March 2023 at 11:38

      Yes, this is far worse than we think and it needs to be addressed right away. Not in a month or two but now. Labour shortages is putting it lightly.

      Delete
  2. Amber10 March 2023 at 13:42

    Good to know. I didn't know highly qualified workers were considering the UK such a good place to work and live in.

    ReplyDelete

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