Improving living standards in countries such as India
could make it harder totempt foreign IT workers to the UK, a
new report has warned.
By 2012, 19,000 extra migrant workers will be required by the IT
and telecommunications sector and foreign IT workers will
contribute £16.2bn to the UK economy. But the number of skilled
migrants coming into the UK will start to level off this year, as
India's fast-growing economy retains more and more of its
home-grown talent.
The
Future Flows report, compiled by the Centre for Economics and
Business Research on behalf of recruitment firm Harvey Nash, said
the IT sector would continue to
rely on workers from abroad as demand for e-commerce and
software specialists rises.
Most IT workers have arrived from India, which has its
own dynamic IT sector and workers who are experiencing
improving living standards. The report warned, "India has a rapidly
growing economy and IT professionals may become harder to
attract."
The report said the domestic market could not have managed the
fast growth in demand for computing and IT skills over the past
decade without the support of migrants.
It said, "The almost universal roll-out of computing and
internet facilities increased the demand for personnel with
information technology skills. The domestic market could not meet
these needs and therefore the population of highly skilled
international software professionals has jumped by 26,000 in the
past seven years. These software professionals have predominantly
arrived from India which has a large number of graduates studying
information technology."
The IT sector has the second-highest share of skilled migrant
workers. The dot.com crash led to a fall in numbers in 2001 but
since 2004 growth has picked up again. This growth is expected to
peak in 2008 and then level off as the political and economic
climate changes.