Workers face competition from abroad
12/03/2008(15:41)
IT workers in the UK face competition from foreign workers as the number recruited last year rose by 14 per cent, new statistics show.
The figures obtained by the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (ATSCo) show that companies are going one step further than outsourcing and recruiting people from foreign countries outright, reports IT Pro.
Workers from India were most popular by a large margin, with 80 per cent of the foreign employees coming from the country, with America following in a distant second.
Ann Swain, chief executive of ATSCo, told the website: "Organisations have been offshoring UK IT jobs in order to cut costs, but now they are exploiting the leaky visa system to import cheap labour from abroad."
She added that there were concerns that the practice meant the British IT workforce was being overlooked and that it is "damaging the long-term competitiveness of the UK IT industry".
Advantages of importing workers are that it is cheaper and easier than finding home grown recruit, says Ms Swain.
It was recently reported that top bosses are concerned that a lack of IT workers is affecting their business.
Click here for IT jobs at JobServe