Rishi Sunak’s government have added more jobs into the UK’s Shortage Occupation List (SOL), which has now made these jobs enjoy relaxed immigration rules and requirement for hiring foreign workers by UK companies. This came about 4 months after the recommendation was made by the Migration Advisory Committee, an independent body.
In defending this decision, the UK interior ministry said in a statement on Monday that adding the new jobs would “aid the delivery of key national infrastructure and stimulate growth for related industries” in the United Kingdom.
There are at least eight more jobs that has been added to this list of “shortage occupations,” which means that intending migrants to the UK now have more options to lawfully relocate to the country. Particularly, foreign workers who have the right skills for these jobs can now benefit from relaxed immigration rules.
This in practical terms mean cheaper visas and looser employment requirements. These new jobs are mostly in the construction industry. It includes – bricklayers, masons, roofers, roof tilers, slaters, carpenters, joiners, and plasterers.
For instance, jobs in the SOL does not have to meet the salary threshold as other jobs at the same rating for the purpose of visa requirement assessment. As a foreign worker, you can get UK work visa with a job offer with a salary that is only 80% of the rating for the salary scale.
Job opening in the United Kingdom have continued to grow, while workers to take up these jobs are still in short supply. Certain sectors are more hit than others, making it very difficult for UK companies to find workers in the country to help drive their company targets.
The UK government is not unaware of this challenges that employers are facing. The prime minister understands very well the need to tackle this shortage of labour in the UK if the government’s objective to shore up the economy will see the light of the day.
That is exactly why previous governments created what it refers to the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). Jobs on this list attract different consideration when it comes to employing foreign workers from outside the United Kingdom. The UK strict immigration rules are relaxed to make it easier for companies to hire foreign workers and bring them into the UK to live and to work.
This “shortage occupation list” allows government to apply immigration restrictions differently to sectors of the UK economy according to what and where it deems fit.
Even in the current drive by Sunak’s government to reduce UK’s net-migration we are still witnessing this development in the SOL. The fact that net-migration has gone through the roof have not hindered further job additions to the “shortage occupation list”.
Record from government in May showed that UK’s net migration hit a record high of 606,000 in 2022. This resulted to promises by the prime minster, Rishi Sunak to work towards reducing the number of migrants arriving in the United Kingdom.
