Thousands of
UK job losses in IT coincided with a massive influx of IT
workers from outside the European Union in 2008, figures have
revealed.
The
Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) got the
data from the Home Office through a freedom of information
request.
Over 35,000 UK work permits were issued to non-EU IT workers in
2008 compared with about 13,000 in 2000 at the peak of the dot.com
boom.
The biggest number of foreign IT workers in 2008 came to the UK
from India, the US and China.
APSCo said the government's immigration points system was
failing to restrict non-European workers to those with the most
sought after skills.
Despite job losses, the UK is still allowing three times as many
non-EU IT workers into the UK than during the dot.com boom when
there was a chronic skills shortage.
"A few years ago this may have been overlooked, but with IT jobs
much scarcer, this is now a contentious issue," said Ann Swain,
chief executive of APSCo.
Government should consider making companies advertise vacancies
in the UK before bringing in workers on intra-company transfers,
she said.
Such transfers account for more than 80% of non-EU IT workers
coming in to the UK and there is no requirement for companies to
advertise jobs locally first.