Posted by James Curtis
Contractors working as
sole traders and
limited companies in the engineering and IT sectors in the UK could be among those interested to hear that businesses are set to increase their use of migrant workers.
The market trend comes as a result of a number of organisations struggling to fill highly-skilled IT and engineering roles, according to the KPMG and Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) report.
Data from the Labour Market Outlook study revealed that 45 per cent of organisations have reported having vacancies that are "hard to fill".
As a result, almost one-fifth (17 per cent) said they intend to recruit migrant workers for the roles in the third quarter of the year.
Gerwyn Davies, CIPD public policy adviser and author of the report, said: "The training of local or British workers to fill skilled jobs currently occupied by migrant workers will not happen overnight."
The expert said the results mean any migration cap introduced by the government would have to be done in a way that does not harm UK competitiveness.
"Employers running global operations will be forced to offshore skilled jobs to other countries if the right skills mix in the UK cannot be found," he added.