Employers worried about staff shortages should increase pay

Mon 24 Nov 2008

Employers worried that new employment laws will leave them short-staffed have been advised to increase pay.

Chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, David Metcalf, who was responsible for drawing up the migrant worker shortage occupations list, has said that really some firms were hoping to employ workers at a cheaper rate.

"What they're arguing is that they don't want to hire someone for £8.10 an hour, they want to do it for £6 an hour - but that doesn't [make a job] qualify for the shortage list," he commented.

He told Personnel Today: "Employers will have to intensify their recruitment processes and raise their wages to attract British workers, or keep the migrant workers they do not want to lose."

UK teenagers, however, remain confident they will find work, despite the current economic difficulties, the BBC reports.

In a government survey, nearly 90 per cent said they would find work and more than half disapproved of claiming from the state.

Call centre jobs in Birmingham offer some school leavers their first employment opportunity.