Enthusiasm about hiring migrant workers remains

The enthusiasm for using skilled foreign workers was not dampened at all by the recession, it has been claimed.

Findings from the Labour Market Outlook survey, published by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD) and KPMG, show that recruiters are as enthusiastic about hiring workers from overseas to undertake skilled tasks as they were before the economic downturn.

The figures show that 19 per cent of employers recruited migrant workers in the past three months, with public sector employers more likely to hire migrant workers than private sector employers.

Gerwyn Davies, the report's author and public policy adviser for the CIPD, said: "Through a combination of recruiting migrant workers to fill UK vacancies, or outsourcing work to locations abroad, employers are looking to strike the right balance between the skills for the job and the cost reductions needed to meet budget targets."

Recently, Eddie O'Connor, chief executive of Mainstream Renewable Power, told the Guardian that migrant workers may be the key to solving skills shortages in the UK's infrastructure projects.

Posted by Lee Anne Lewis