Employer decision-making around skill shortages, employee shortages and migration: literature review

This review of available UK and international literature looks at how employers make decisions around skill and employee shortages, and how they trade off factors such as skills, employee availability and pay against each other. It examines strategies and measures employers use, or have used, to address skills and employee shortages, and the success of these strategies and measures. It explores how they trade off factors such as employee skills, availability and pay against each other. In particular, it looks at both the reasons for hiring migrants as a response to skill and employee...  [+] Show more

This review of available UK and international literature looks at how employers make decisions around skill and employee shortages, and how they trade off factors such as skills, employee availability and pay against each other. It examines strategies and measures employers use, or have used, to address skills and employee shortages, and the success of these strategies and measures. It explores how they trade off factors such as employee skills, availability and pay against each other. In particular, it looks at both the reasons for hiring migrants as a response to skill and employee shortages, and the reasons for not using migration as a response. The review has a focus on occupations with medium training requirements. These are at Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) level 3 to 5 - i.e. approximately A-Level/Highers or equivalent.

The sources searched included academic databases, grey literature and anonymised submissions from stakeholders from the Migration Advisory Committee's (MAC's) call for evidence on roles with medium training requirements that are being filled by migrant workers. The review revealed that there is limited literature on occupations with medium training requirements (RQF3-5 equivalent) vis-a-vis occupations with both longer (RQF6+, i.e. with training requirements equivalent to bachelor's degree or above) and shorter (RQF 1-2, i.e. with training requirements below A-level/Highers equivalent) training requirements. The available literature often focuses on sectors rather than occupations. In interpreting the evidence, it is important to keep in mind that employers' responses may be one-sided - focusing particularly on the lack of local labour. Moreover, interpretations of what constitutes a skills shortage varies between employers.

Excerpt from publication.