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Please note a slight amendment within the attached report: This is in reference to aircraft component engineers in chapter 5 and should read ‘AIRCRAFT COMPONENT MANUFACTURING ENGINEERS’.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recommends that the shortage occupation route should include teachers in special schools and skilled meat boners and trimmers on its list of jobs most in need of immigrant labour.

In response to changing economic circumstances, the MAC also recommends that some engineering and construction jobs be removed from the list as well as ship and hovercraft officers.

For the time being skilled chefs remain on the recommended list. However, the MAC expects to see accelerated efforts to train up the UK workforce in this profession before the lists are reviewed again next year.

The following posts are also recommended for addition to the shortage occupation list:

• specialised jobs in the electricity transmission and distribution industry;

• some medical specialisms, including higher level speciality paediatrics trainees;

• aircraft technicians and fitters.

Chair of the MAC, Professor David Metcalf CBE, said:

"The Points Based System, including the shortage occupation list, has to operate for the benefit of UK workers, especially given the current economic climate.

"The Migration Advisory Committee’s latest recommendations take account of the impact of the worldwide recession on the UK. We have looked at the evidence and made recommendations that balance the needs of the UK workforce against those of employers.

"It is important to note that some shortages of skilled labour will still exist in a recession. This can be where there is a long-term structural shortage of skilled workers, where workers provide key public services, or in areas such as culture where the UK needs to maintain global leadership.”

In this report the MAC has reviewed the following occupations: all healthcare and engineering occupations, chefs, teachers (further/higher, secondary, primary, and special needs education teaching professionals), town planners, managers in construction, quantity surveyors, ship and hovercraft officers, veterinary surgeons, sheep shearers, work riders, ballet dancers, skilled fish filleters, meat boners and trimmers.

All the occupations included in the original recommended shortage occupation lists have now been reviewed at least once since the first recommendations in 2008.

Ends.

Notes to editors:

The shortage occupation list can be found here: http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/employers/points/sponsoringmigrants/employingmigrants/shortageoccupationlist/

In spring 2009 the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published its first partial review of its recommended shortage occupation lists (one for the whole of the UK and one specifically for Scotland). This report provides the second partial review of those lists.

Following the first recommended shortage occupation lists in autumn 2008, the Government announced in November 2008 that it accepted the MAC’s recommended shortage occupation lists in full, with the temporary addition of social workers. The shortage occupation lists became operational with the introduction of Tier 2 of the Points Based System in November 2008. In May 2008 the Government fully accepted the MAC’s recommendations contained in the partial review.

Under 500,000 jobs, less than 2 per cent of employees (i.e. all UK employees, not just immigrants) work in occupations and jobs on the recommended shortage lists. The corresponding figure a year ago was approximately 700,000.

For further information on the MAC and committee members please click on the following link: www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/mac

Contacts:

Home Office Press Office
Phone: 020 7035 3535
NDS.HO@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Adam Murcutt
Phone: 020 7035 3862
Adam.Murcutt1@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk