The Migration Advisory Committee has today advised that the Shortage Occupation List be revised to restrict migrants from outside the European Economic Area to a smaller proportion of occupations within the UK labour market.

Today the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) recommends the list be reduced to cover 190,000 employees (not migrants) or well under 1 per cent of the UK workforce. In 2008, before the MAC recommended changes to it, that list covered over 1 million employees.

The occupations in the list are the only positions open to migrants from outside the European Economic Area under the shortage occupation route of Tier 2 of the of Points Based System and Tier 2 is subject to an annual limit of 20,700.

The latest MAC recommended list provides a more detailed breakdown of the sectors of the labour market affected by shortage. This has enabled the MAC to identify individual job titles rather than broader occupations.

Professor David Metcalf CBE, Chairman, MAC, said:

'Although the proportion of the labour market covered by our new recommended list is lower than before, our recommendation will have only a limited impact on migration volumes because overall migration through Tier 2 is limited. However, the list is more selective than before: it is targeted specifically on those job titles where there is currently a clear evidence of shortage.

'We think it is vital that the government, employers and the training sector take concerted action to raise the skill levels of the UK workforce, especially in long-standing shortage occupation areas. This will reduce the UK's reliance on migrant workers in the long term and provide real benefits for the economy as a whole.'