70 new job types being added to Shortage Occupation List

Under the government’s new Points-Based Immigration System, the minimum salary required to sponsor an overseas worker will be £25,600, unless the worker has a PhD — or is being hired for a role that appears on the Shortage Occupation List. The minimum salary for a shortage job will instead be £20,480. As the Migration Advisory Committee says in its major review of the Shortage Occupation List, published today, this “fundamentally alters the nature of the SOL”. A job being included on the list will mean that employers can sponsor someone for a visa at a salary up to 20% lower than would otherwise be allowed.

In its last review of the list in May 2019, the Migration Advisory Committee recommended that roles accounting for 9% of UK employment be listed as shortage occupations. This latest review boosts that to 14% (assuming the government accepts the committee’s recommendations, as it is expected to). 70 new job types will be added to either the UK-wide shortage list or to those specific to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. They include senior care workers, nursing assistants, butchers, bricklayers and welders.