MAC report on the shortage occupation list

May 29, 2019

Commenting, Alp Mehmet, Vice Chairman of Migration Watch UK, said: 

An initial analysis of this long report shows its main proposal to be to increase the shortage occupation list from covering less than 1% of total employment to 9% - or about 2.5m workers. This is astonishing. The MAC seems to have turned 180 degrees from its previous emphasis on encouraging employers to recruit domestically through improved wages, better conditions and boosted training. What a pity.

If these recommendations were accepted, it would amount to a turning point in immigration policy. The control of numbers would, in effect, be abandoned and the incentive for UK employers to train UK workers would be even further reduced. Employers would be happy but many people would be aghast at this disregard for public concern about the present massive level of immigration.

Note to editors

• The MAC has previously said: "The IT, engineering and health sectors invest insufficiently in UK residents" (see report, p.32).
• The MAC said last year: "Individual employers would almost always be able to recruit resident workers if they paid wages sufficiently above the going rate" (see report, p.10).
• Read the latest MAC report  on the shortage occupation list.