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Migrant workers 'solve skills gap in London'

12/12/2006

Shortages of skilled employees in the capital are being plugged by migrant workers, a new study from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) shows.

Publishing a survey conducted in association with accountancy firm KPMG, the CBI claims that 48 per cent of London businesses are reliant on foreign workers from the EU.

Given the additional language skills they offer, employers are happy to take on foreign workers. However, with the percentage of those seeing skills shortages as the biggest block to business growth rising to 67 per cent from 53 per cent last year, CBI director-general Richard Lambert believes the reliance on migrant workers is bad news for the future.

"In the short term, firms will hire economic migrants to fill the gaps but this is not a sustainable long-term solution," Mr Lambert commented.

"If we are to maintain our pre-eminence we need to instill in our homegrown school-leavers and graduates the skills they need to compete in today's globalising world."

The CBI survey found limited confidence in the government's efforts to improve the situation, with 59 per cent doubting the likely effectiveness of its latest initiative

"While the influx of talent from outside the UK has been very welcome, we really must do more to skill up Londoners," KPMG London's senior partner, Ian Barlow, said.

"It's economically wasteful and morally simply wrong for there to be some 400,000 unemployed in London when there are so many job opportunities."

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