Jobbatical's paper, "A case for rethinking skilled immigration in the UK," outlines the severity of issues brought on by a lack of workers. In actuality, 58% of companies use foreign labor to fill available vacancies.

According to the most recent report from the University of Oxford's Migration Observatory, professional and technical services (eight percent), finance (five percent), and information technology (five percent) were the three industries that issued the most skilled worker visas in the year ending in June 2023, after the health sector.


Based on a poll of senior business professionals conducted by Jobbatical, the most pressing skills gaps that mid-to-large-sized technology organizations in the UK are facing are cybersecurity (reported by 47% of respondents), artificial intelligence (indicated by 47% of respondents), and data analysis (44% of respondents).

Numerous respondents to Jobbatical's survey think that foreign workers may be able to help in this situation. Approximately 67% of senior business experts in the technology sector believe that additional foreign workers are necessary for UK enterprises. The decision to hire foreign workers would be positively influenced, according to 49% of respondents, by the skills, credentials, or experience that current employees lack, and 58% of mid-to-large-sized technology companies see international recruitment as a long-term business strategy.

Is the British government intentionally harming itself?

In spite of these results, the UK government recently enacted new immigration regulations that significantly increase the cost-of-hiring foreign labor for companies.


Co-founder and CEO of Jobbatical Karoli Hindriks says, "As tech firms struggle with skills shortages and limited labor pools, recruiting local people is increasingly not an option. The UK is just not producing enough qualified workers for this industry.

The structure of the educational system does not produce enough skilled workers in critical, emerging STEM fields like AI, cybersecurity, and data analysis. The UK faces losing its competitive edge in the global economy to nations with more progressive laws and better talent flows if more money isn't invested in these sectors and if immigration laws aren't in line with what the tech sector truly needs.


Companies understand the advantages of bringing in foreign labor, and according to a study of senior business experts in the technology sector, 67% of them believe that the government should increase the UK's appeal to overseas workers.

Generally, 60% of businesses believe that the current immigration laws are detrimental to UK companies. Similarly, 50% of businesses would be more inclined to hire foreign workers if the cost of a visa and sponsorship was reduced, and 67% would be more inclined to do so if the hiring procedure for foreign workers was more transparent.


The UK offers one of the most expensive employment visas in the world, and the existing procedure for obtaining a visa for an international worker can frequently be complicated, expensive, and convoluted. Karoli continued, "This system no longer serves the IT industry, especially in light of recent advancements, and the UK government is shooting itself in the foot by making the immigration procedure even more cost-prohibitive.