Government confirms reduction of shortage occupation list and Tier 2 approved professions
The UKBA has confirmed the occupations that will be removed from the shortage occupations list. As part of this announcement the UKBA have also confirmed the professions which will no longer be considered approved jobs under Tier 2 of the points-based system.Eight occupations will be removed from the shortage occupation list which will reduced the number of jobs available to migrants from around 500,000 to 230,000. This reduction comes about because of the number of unemployed people in the UK who could fill the positions.
A further 71 professions will be removed from the list of approved jobs under Tier 2, reducing the number of available professions from 192 to 121. These 71 professions were removed because they were deemed to be below graduate level.
Vacancies for any of the remaining 121 positions will need to be advertised in the UK for four weeks and offered to resident workers before they can be offered to non-EU workers.
These changes will come into effect in April. The UKBA announcement accepts all of the recommendations made in two reports by the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) on the shortage occupation list and the approved occupations under Tier 2.
The MAC has estimated that 65% of the 8,400 certificates of sponsorship granted in 2010 for positions on the shortage occupation list would not qualify under the new criteria. This means nearly 5,500 people would not have been granted entry to the UK.
Further to these changes the government has now commissioned the MAC to review shortages and expertise across the entire labour market to see if the list can be reduced further.
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