Conflicting sets of evidence have been presented concerning the impact of UK work permits for overseas employees on jobs for British workers.
The government's Migration Advisory Committee (Mac) released research this week (January 10th) suggesting that for every 100 migrants who enter the country from outside of the European Union, there are 23 fewer UK jobs.
At the same time, however, a separate report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has stated that immigration is having little impact on the jobs market. In fact, it went so far as to say that immigration essentially has “no impact” on unemployment numbers in the UK following its assessment of unemployment benefit claimants and migration.
“The results show a very small negative and generally insignificant correlation between the migrant inflow rate and the change in the claimant count rate,” the NIESR observed.
Meanwhile, the Mac reported that different sectors will be hit at different rates by immigration, with information and communications technology, retail and hospitality possibly seeing the highest level of impact.
Other areas, however, have been known to benefit from overseas workers on UK work permits, such as the health and care sector which has previously looked to foreign workers to make up for shortfalls found within the UK workforce.