UK tech hit by double trouble: Fewer foreign techies amid skills squeeze

The number of international workers applying for a visa to work in the UK's tech sector dropped 11 percent between Q2 and Q3 2025, and was down 6 percent year-on-year, according to consultancy RSM UK. At the same time, domestic talent is expensive and non-technical staff are proving difficult to upskill. These findings come …

[Andy 73]

Note to Employers

You don't HAVE to grapple with AI. It's a tool like any other, and for many businesses has absolutely zero relevance to the work you do, or minimal benefit at best.

You didn't HAVE to grapple with grammar checkers in Word, which for many businesses is pretty much what AI can offer - a tool to automate some communication tasks.

You didn't HAVE to grapple with website chatbots, which many users find next to useless when it comes to actually solving their problems.

Sure, AI may eventually improve things, but early adopters are being bitten hard when it turns out services are over sold, under constrained and cost far more than the benefits they provide.

And as far as the employment stuff is concerned, can we talk honestly about the many challenges facing the workforce and employers at the moment, quite a few of which are the responsibility of the government, which seems to be asleep at the wheel at the moment as businesses and individuals struggle with rising costs, poor infrastructure and lack of support.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who'd want to come to the UK to work with the rise of Farage and his fascist cronies?

[Anonymous Coward]

Who'd want to come to the UK to work with the rise of Farage and his fascist cronies?

The answer would be some other populist party that promises to address voter concerns that isn’t Labour/conservatives/greens/libdems.

Eagerly awaiting the unicorn party

I am utterly disgusted at how {Labour/conservatives/lib dems} have behaved over the last 30+ years & am very very unlikely to vote for them.

Politically homeless awaiting a credible choice.

I suspect many will give reform a go as they don’t see how they can be worse than the established lot.

We need a credible reform competitor but I’m not seeing 1.

I’m sick of the uniparty

[Anonymous Coward]

As long as corruption is legal, there will be no choice. Any incoming party will dine with the same people who dined with the previous lot and do their bidding, ignoring the voters.

[Tim99]

An acquaintance said "We are governed by people who want to become multi-millionaires, who do the bidding of billionaires".

[VoiceOfTruth]

Those complaining about Farage and Reform should see them as symptoms. It's not that Reform is better, it is that the Tories and Labour are far worse.

Labour for about 30 years has been Tory-light. They have moved to the 'centre', which really means moving to the right. It seems that politicians more of less hate the electorate, and treat them as the great unwashed. Starmer knew about Mandelson's 'association' with Epstein, and still ticked the box that said 'OK'. Would it have been too hard just to say 'unsuitable'?

The fact is the whole establishment is rotten. It's not just the political parties. Prince Charles, as he was then, wrote letters (plural) of support for child abuser Peter Ball. I do not for one second believe that Charles didn't know what Ball was up to. But because Ball was his friend, his crimes didn't matter. Suddenly Charles changes his tune when the police come for Andrew. I have no idea if Andrew is guilty of any crimes, but at the very least he is not quite the exalted person we are supposed to treat him as. How much did the Queen know? I have to wonder.

Charles and Diana's wedding vows in St Pauls were worth not a lot. Both of them were 'cheating'. I don't blame them for cheating any more than I blame anyone else doing the same. But it seems just a little bit more rotten when we are supposed to see the Royal Family as some kind of majestic thing.

If you really want to see some egregious nastiness look up Sarah Ferguson on YouTube. This tuppenny ha'penny nonentity is one of the worst of them. Her 'charity', Sarah's Trust, focuses on 'addressing poverty'. Yet she recently ran off to a clinic in Switzerland. The reputed cost is over £13,000 a day. Her continued support for Epstein, and her supplications ('Marry me'), expose her perfidy.

What we see is just the tip of the iceberg. There always seems to be a mistake, a lapse of judgement, a 'I was misled' with these people, These errors always seem to benefit 'them'.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who is worse?

The old guard (Tories and Lab) have their faults but if you think that a Farage led world would be better, please go and live in Minneapolis and protest at ICE.

Please change your handle to 'Ministry of Truth', it is more appropriate. A Farage world would be like 1933 Germany.

[VoiceOfTruth]

Re: Who is worse?

I haven't suggested Farage would be better. I don't think he would be. But he is where he is because of the Tories and Labour. They are both so bad that Farage came into the picture.

Your soft words 'have their faults' typifies Farage's rise. I can imagine the Tory party 'leadership' looking in the mirror 'we have some faults but are not too bad'. Then they get decimated at the elections.

[Dan 55]

Re: Who is worse?

I haven't suggested Farage would be better.

Ahem...

It's not that Reform is better, it is that the Tories and Labour are far worse.

That's generally how comparatives work in English, comrade.

And Farage has announced they want an ICE-style force in the UK. Not the fluffy version Trump announced before the elections, but version as it is now, by scrapping ILR and deporting people who've made their lives in the UK. That is worse.

[VoiceOfTruth]

Re: Who is worse?

You need to take some English lessons. Saying something is worse does not mean the other thing is better. Have you ever heard of 'bad, worse'? That is how comparatives work.

[doublelayer]

Re: Who is worse?

Yes, it does. "X is worse than Y" does not mean that Y is good, but it does mean that Y is better than X. If you say something is worse, you are saying they can be compared for quality and you are picking a superior. If you don't want to do that, you have a lot of perfectly acceptable options in English such as "X is bad, but Y is also bad" which doesn't require you to decide which one is more bad or, if you want to be more explicit, "X is bad but Y is bad in a different way" which explicitly denies that you're even attempting a comparison between them.

[VoiceOfTruth]

Re: Who is worse?

No it doesn't. Take bad as being -1. Worse is less than -1. They are both bad. -1 is not positive.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who is worse?

These types of comment are nauseating, constantly telling people what to do without stepping up themselves.

Free thinkers will decide for themselves.

Problem is their choice is either established crap parties or terrible challenger parties with no experience.

[Anonymous Coward]

Those complaining about Farage and Reform should see them as symptoms. It's not that Reform is better, it is that the Tories and Labour are far worse.

So true

We have bad choices, & the alternative is quite crap too with the only advantage being they’ve not had a whirl in power yet.

[LionelB]

The most egregious despots in history, past and present, had not "had a whirl in power" – until they did. I'm not sure "advantage" is the word you're looking for.

[R Soul]

"the only advantage being they’ve not had a whirl in power yet."

That can only be a disadvantage because they don't know how the machinery of government works or how to run things. Just look at how Farage's clueless dimwits are fucking up the councils they're running.

[Anonymous Coward]

That can only be a disadvantage because they don't know how the machinery of government works or how to run things. Just look at how Farage's clueless dimwits are fucking up the councils they're running.

Civil servants have cunning ways to thwart government policies.

Conforming to their ways of working is not always a good thing.

Blair initiated the quangos to get round the civil service. Government departments consult with quangos who make the decisions for civil servants to enact.

Decisions are in the form of policy documents or reports by by the quangos reputed to be independent but commissioned by quangos.

Not falling for the same rubbish we’ve had for the last 30 years is most definitely an advantage.

The advantage I was writing about was that they have no experience in government so the public can’t judge them as much as those who have had experience namely Labour/conservatives/lib-dems.

[Anonymous Coward]

quangos

"Blair initiated the quangos to get round the civil service".

No he didn't. Quangos were around for decades before that lying bastard got into parliament.

Oh and quango policy documents and reports are not decisions.

"Not falling for the same rubbish we’ve had for the last 30 years is most definitely an advantage."

Maybe. Not falling for Farage's saloon bar pub bore bullshit is the biggest advantage of all.

It's a pity those inconvenient truths spoil your delusions.

[lvd]

"The fact is the whole establishment is rotten. It's not just the political parties."

And this is exactly the problem. Certainly since the seventies at least, we've seen an ever-widening gulf between the politicians and the plebs, with the whole rotten lot of them kowtowing to the wishes of the elite. The post-war consensus helped to paper over some of the cracks, but that's been steadily dismantled by both Labour and the Tories ever since Thatcher was elected. In Scottish Nationalist circles, it's not at all uncommon to hear the two parties described as being two cheeks of the same arse, and there's a lot of truth in that. Same playbook every time - blame the country's woes on militant unions, Europe, immigrants, small boats, Europe, benefit scroungers, immigrants, Europe, bloated nationalised industries, younger generations who haven't got jobs, EUROPE... those have been the main bogeymen that I can recall.

It's all complete deflection, of course, designed to distract from a venal, self-serving and greedy institution that couldn't care less about the electorate. Why would they, when all they have to do is promise the earth in the run-up to polling day and then ignore those promises once the results are in? It will need a party led by a charismatic visionary with the guts to make real changes to change that. I can go back as far as Ted Heath, and the only politicians I can think of who fitted that bill are Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and Nicola Sturgeon. The first two developed God disease and Sturgeon's standing down in May.

Whether you loved them or loathed them, you can't deny they all made their mark but the establishment survived. Farage has no chance against that - he's just a gobshite who likes the sound of his own voice. The only thing he might do is provoke an uprising if he takes his fascism too far too quickly.

[Anonymous Coward]

In Scottish Nationalist circles, it's not at all uncommon to hear the two parties described as being two cheeks of the same arse, and there's a lot of truth in that.

so......

who do you recommend we vote for?

[lvd]

"who do you recommend we vote for?"

It's not up to me to tell anyone how to vote. Read the manifestos, look at each party's track record and decide for yourself if they're trustworthy. Then vote accordingly.

Or just blindly vote for whichever party your preferred daily rag and Twitter bots are shilling for. Which an awful lot of people will do.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not up to me to tell anyone how to vote. Read the manifestos, look at each party's track record and decide for yourself if they're trustworthy. Then vote accordingly.

Or just blindly vote for whichever party your preferred daily rag and Twitter bots are shilling for. Which an awful lot of people will do.

The nothing burger manoeuvre

That’s like knowing the bridge is out but not explaining to anyone that there are useable alternative routes and then complaining that people are staring and moaning about the broken bridge whilst you go and take the alternative route.

Ok Dave.

[Anonymous Coward]

Who wants...?

Especially with the threat of a UK version of ICE roaming the streets arresting anyone who does not fit their defined type of target (the same as the USA).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who wants...?

Unfortunately there are large number of voters who very much want that and really don't care or understand the consequences of what will in turn happen to them as a result.

I doubt anyone will argue against a more controlled form of immigration and a better way to remove these who commite crimes when they come here but I think what Farage is encouraging is the medieval village mentality of (ideally violently) deporting anyone who has skin a few shades darker than their own.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who wants...?

Basically everyone supports the removal of immigrants who commit serious crimes, but here's the thing:

In the US, unauthorized immigrants commit serious crimes at a MUCH LOWER RATE than native born Americans. You're much less likely to be robbed or raped by someone who spent months walking the desert and swimming the river to build a better life with their family than a native-born meth head from the trailer park.

Know who doesn't commit crimes? People who work 80 hours a week and know that the slightest mistake can get them sent back. Put yourself in their shoes. What would you do?

Guessing it's the same in the UK.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who wants...?

Especially with the threat of a UK version of ICE roaming the streets arresting anyone who does not fit their defined type of target (the same as the USA).

People of colour have been subject to that since before my time.

People who are not of colour are now getting dragged into this and seeing it for what it truly is.

It’s horrific & people should not be dying for it.

I do remember a time in the late eighties through late nighties/ early naughtiest where we where truly one. But we now seem to have regressed hugely.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who wants...?

People of where?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who wants...?

Racism has always been a rotten part of human culture.

...but the UK doesn't run racial gulags like Trump's America now does. Brownshirts don't roam the streets of London looking to handcuff anyone who's brown or doesn't speak perfect English.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who wants...?

Yet. If Farage ever gets into power, we can expect all of that - and more.

[ChoHag]

Re: Who wants...?

> Brownshirts don't roam the streets of London looking to handcuff anyone who's brown or doesn't speak perfect English.

Indeed. They are usually in blue.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Who wants...?

Brownshirts don't roam the streets of London looking to handcuff anyone who's brown or doesn't speak perfect English.

Tell that to all the innocents who get stopped & searched just in case, disproportionately ‘of colour’ because of statistics.

Also those who get extra scrutiny because ‘of colour’, due to statistics.

Another term is profiling.

It’s funny how people ignore or dismiss it’s happening because it’s happening worse over seas.

Still painful and life altering when it happens here, why am I being targeted because I’m ’of colour’ when those not ‘of colour’ are not treated the same.

When it’s the public doing it you can dismiss them as bigots but when it’s the authorities it’s not the same, feels harsher & consequences are more than hurty words.

[graemep]

Re: Who wants...?

> Tell that to all the innocents who get stopped & searched just in case, disproportionately ‘of colour’ because of statistics.

Causation does not imply correlation.

If you are attributing some ethnic groups being stopped and search more often to racism rather than other factors (e.g. wealth, living in big cities...) that correlate to race that implies the average cop can tell the difference between someone of Bangladeshi ancestry (high stop and search rate) from someone of Indian ancestry (low stop and search rate) at a glance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you seen what's going on in the US under its demented fascist president?

[LionelB]

> Who'd want to come to the UK to work with the rise of Farage and his fascist cronies?

Americans, that's who. The orange fascist and his cronies have already arisen over there, and hold the reins.

Don't know so much about the tech sector, but we're certainly seeing that in academia; in the US academia is under siege, and funding is drying up. The number of US applicants for UK and EU funding has surged of late (I believe Canada is seeing something similar). I suppose we could be beneficiaries of the US brain-drain, but it does pile pressure on home-grown applicants.

[Anonymous Coward]

This. The problems Americans read about in the UK seem rather mild and fixable compared to the demented, fascist strongman running the US.

US is now End Stage Rome.

[Anonymous Coward]

If we had any sense the government would be opening it's coffers to allow the acquisition of real overseas academic talent as well as domestic. It doesn't need to be an either / game. A great shame we can't get politicians to look past the 4 year election cycle as a period when retuirn must happen. Attracting academic should be seen as a long term benefit with an understanding that the payoff might not come for decades but it would come.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't know so much about the tech sector, but we're certainly seeing that in academia; in the US academia is under siege, and funding is drying up. The number of US applicants for UK and EU funding has surged of late (I believe Canada is seeing something similar). I suppose we could be beneficiaries of the US brain-drain, but it does pile pressure on home-grown applicants.

i'm assuming they have to suck up the drop in salary coming to the UK or are they funded differently?

[LionelB]

Academic salaries (especially at postdoc/research level, as opposed to faculty teaching posts) are not great in either the US or UK. Depends a lot on the funding body.

[Throg]

Too Expensive?

“At the same time, domestic talent is expensive and non-technical staff are proving difficult to upskill.”

Ah, so it’s not so much about the availability of boffins and more to do with replacing cheap outsourcing with supposedly even cheaper “AI”.

It really is becoming a race to the bottom, isn’t it?

[VoiceOfTruth]

Re: Too Expensive?

Domestic talent is expensive because housing is expensive, especially in London. New build houses are small boring boxes with a postage stamp of grass which is referred to in the sales literature as the 'lawn'. For those commuting, train fares are expensive. Price rises always seem to be above the official rate of inflation.

[KittenHuffer]

Re: Too Expensive?

And salary increases below!

[graemep]

Re: Too Expensive?

If you can hire people from abroad you can presumably higher people from a different part of the same country.

[Mishak]

Re: Too Expensive?

Compared to what? I could easily get 1.5 to 2 times what I am on in the UK if I were prepared to move to Germany or the US, for example.

I don't get how businesses in the UK are willing to pay £whatever for "talent", but £minimal for skills / knowledge.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Too Expensive?

Funny how they always have wads of money for C-suite "talent" which is about the biggest euphemism there is.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Too Expensive?

The company I work for in the UK aim for staff to be paid at 70% of the going market rate. Once at 70% they're lucky to get a 1% cost of living rise each year.

[ecofeco]

Re: Too Expensive?

Becoming? Where have you been for the last 25 years?

The bottom was reached long ago and the hole was started. It's quite deep now.

[werdsmith]

Re: Too Expensive?

I love being expensive. Come on cough up, I’ve got RAM to buy.

[David Hicklin]

Re: Too Expensive?

It's been a race to the bottom ever since the first jobs were outsourced to China and the power of the City and Stock Markets demanded ever higher sales and profits.

[Groo The Wanderer - A Canuck]

Real culprit: the obscene tax load in the UK for 6-figure salaries. Why pay half your staff wages to the government when you can just contract an off-shore provider from a friendlier taxed nation?

[elsergiovolador]

The problem isn't the tax, but the fact you get very much nothing in exchange for paying so much tax. 6-figure workers pay Scandinavian taxes for banana republic services.

[elsergiovolador]

Fairy tales

Every time large firms say “we can’t find talent”, what they usually mean is “we can’t find it at the price we’d prefer to pay”.

Now we’re told the shortage is both domestic and global. That’s impressive. An entire planet apparently ran out of engineers at once.

If there were truly no talent in the UK or globally, salaries would be exploding. They aren’t.

[Caspian Prince]

Re: Fairy tales

or even more specifically, "we don't want to give this money to someone to do the work for us, because we want to keep it for ourselves to spend on fast cars, overinflated mortgages, skiiing holidays, and other massive executive bonus perks".

[elsergiovolador]

Re: Fairy tales

It’s interesting that luxury consumption is treated as earned reward, while competitive wages are treated as reckless extravagance.

Apparently a supercar is an investment. An experienced engineer is a cost problem.

[Bebu sa Ware]

Apparently a supercar is an investment. An experienced engineer is a cost problem.

Supercars and experienced engineers - both are frequently seen rapidly speeding separately towards the horizon for greener pastures.

The prat in the former through incompetence; the engineer of course by design.

[Doctor Syntax]

The best way to make use of available talent is through the flexibility a healthy freelance community would provide. But Gordon Brown and Red Dawn put an end to that over a quarter of a century ago with IR35.

[Mishak]

Red Dawn

AKA "Dim Prawn".

[Caspian Prince]

There are huge numbers of extraordinarily talented people available in the UK

actually sitting there right now, applying over and over to jobs on LinkedIn (lol), and they're not even getting *replies*, let alone interviews. And on the rare occasion you get an interview, only 1 in 100 is maybe being made an offer, the rest rejected for entirely specious reasons. The same job will then resurface, unfulfilled, over and over, for months on end, despite the huge pool of people perfectly adequately skilled and experienced enough to do the work applying for it. UK businesses: get a grip. Stop being dicks in the hiring process.

[TimMaher]

Re: “dicks in the hiring process”

Also AI.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: There are huge numbers of extraordinarily talented people available in the UK

Are they real jobs or just bait for agencies to top up their contacts pool?

[breakfast]

"adopt [AI] too slowly, and businesses could lose out on increased productivity and growth opportunities,"

Could miss out on opportunities, is laying on the hypotheticals really deep. In the old days they used to tell us that it's important for businesses to make decisions based on evidence, but I suspect it was always hype and faddish buzzword nonsense.

Adopt AI too slowly and businesses could find their offices filling up with confused unicorns.

Adopt AI too slowly and businesses could find their offices have turned into custard.

Adopt AI too slowly and businesses could find that their employees have formed a choir and insist in singing songs in a language nobody understands with the intention of "awakening the sky angels."

There is as much hard evidence for all of these as there is for productivity gains due to AI.

[greatscot]

This is utter nonsense. I know of people with 1st in CS who cannot find work. Employers need to take on and graduates and give them opportunities. There is no skills shortage.

[J.G.Harston]

A first in CS? Plenty of minimum wage office admin jobs going. That's "IT" isn't it? You're using computers. You'll need to demonstrate 15 years previous paid employment in office admin though.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I know of people with 1st in CS who cannot find work"

This shouldn't surprise anyone. There aren't many employment opportunities for those who can write a thesis debating which obscure programming language has the "purest" syntax or explaining the best way to apply lambda theory to excel. A 1st in CS is no guarantee the holder can write decent code, debug server configurations, manage a project, design a scalable architecture, implement a viable IT security policy, etc, etc. AFAIK these skills tend not to be taught in CS departments,

[Anonymous Coward]

Slightly unfair expectations

A CS grad should be able to write decent code, but...

"Debug server configurations" - that's sysadmin work.

"Manage a project" - "Project Manager" is literally a job title.

"Design a scalable architecture" - that's an architect's role.

"Implement a viable IT Security Policy" - that's a job for an information security analyst.

Not saying that a graduate shouldn't be aware of these things - and modern degrees do talk about them - but people expecting someone out of school to be able to combine five different professions is exactly the reason it's hard for them to find work.

[scotty86]

the last Bastian of sense?

Thank goodness for the el Reg comment section.

Most of the articles now are gaslighting us all into believing "everyone" is on this AI hype train and that if we aren't, our businesses will fail.

In an Electrical Engineer and own a company which writes PLC software. Absolutely no need or want to use any bullshit generator, even for generating client documentation. Clients can sniff it a mile off. My edict is "no AI". Surely I can't be the only one?

[elsergiovolador]

Re: the last Bastian of sense?

Most outlets print puff pieces designed to advance goals of shareholders, not to inform the readers.

If journalist attempted to present unvarnished truth, they'd be on the chopping board in no time.

Bottom line is sacred, journalism is dead.

[DMcDonnell]

Re: the last Bastian of sense?

I miss the old Register.

[J.G.Harston]

Re: the last Bastian of sense?

When you recruit for PLC programmers do you insist on 20 years previous paid employment as a PLC programmer? 'cos that's what the job adverts say.

[Anonymous Coward]

UK is Missing a Huge Opportunity

Donald Trump's fascist, anti-immigrant agenda has scared a huge amount of talent away from the US and also created a huge opportunity for the UK.

UK has a tremendous opportunity to capitalize on that. Who crosses borders to build a better life? Generally, the smartest and most motivated people.

With everything going wrong in the US right now, the time is ripe for Westminster to cut the red tape, put talent first, and adopt a whole-of-government policy review of everything which gets in the way of doers getting shit done.

Ever since dotcom, US politicians have been largely successful in scaring business away from the UK by blaming bureaucracy and energy costs. Now that the US is in the grips of an unpredictable, unstable madman, the time is ripe to fix the problem and draw a contrast against America's Mad King. There's very much a sense of End Stage Rome percolating through the US right now.

I've already looked into immigrating to the UK. I wish that weren't the case, but what's going on over here is really that bad.

[Caspian Prince]

Re: UK is Missing a Huge Opportunity

Careful, we're not far off that situation ourselves here.

[gryphon]

Re: UK is Missing a Huge Opportunity

I think a lot of European universities have rubbed their hands in glee and offered scientists who's project budget funding has been cut in US massive bonuses and help to immigrate with the respective govts. falling over themselves to help the process along.

Not sure where the UK is on the scale though, think I remember seeing that Italy was making a lot of the running in that respect.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: UK is Missing a Huge Opportunity

Our universities are too busy shovelling money to Rectors and other senior managment 'talents' (usually politically connected) to have any to spare to attract actual academics.

Universities have little to do with learning now it's all about junkets for the management team and profitable overseas students.

[tiggity]

Re: UK is Missing a Huge Opportunity

My partner left academia (UK university) a few years ago as it was no longer about research and providing a proper education* to students, all about ensuring cash flow & high student numbers.

* Downhill since large fees came in, uni course management would not dare to see students receive bad grades (even though those bad grades wee fully "deserved" as student would not be very good e.g. lack skill / application / understanding etc.).

So huge grade inflation (good luck finding someone leaving with a third or an ordinary these days).

Partner also acted as PhD supervisor and assessor, quality of doctorate work (& students themselves) also went into a nosedive the last few years before she left.

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: UK is Missing a Huge Opportunity

"Not sure where the UK is on the scale though"

UK universities are busy closing departments.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: UK is Missing a Huge Opportunity

Closing the wrong departments. FTFY.

Teaching STEM subjects is far more expensive than media studies, sociology, art history and the rest. So that's generally where the axe falls.

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh do fuck off

More incessant bleating from employers whose primary concern is getting youngsters into the office rather than skills into the company.

[sal II]

Talent vs AI

Why do they need talent? Last time I heard we were all being replaced by AI.

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet

I would bet there is, as usual, no skills shortage. But a shortage of highly skilled people willing to work for dogshit money.

Pushing for overseas 'skilled' workers is simply a way to cause wage depression to a sector of UK workers that have, contrary to the rules, got themselves in position where they, not the employers, have the levers on wages. Something that must be stopped as soon as possible.

[tiggity]

Money

"At the same time, domestic talent is expensive"

A nice summary that overseas workers all about undercutting UK workers / suppressing pay.

Compared to nearby EU countries UK IT pay is dire, so I call BS.

It is purely about companies not wanting to pay IT staff a reasonable wage. (yet happy to fritter huge amounts of cash on vanity projects, C level pay & perks etc.). "AI" is many companies big hope as, to them, it means reducing headcount & getting rid of some pesky staff (especially those experienced staff with institutional knowledge who are not "yes men / women" but say what the issues are; once they can be ditched it can all be a nice echo chamber, forever retrying "solutions" that failed in the past and will fail again)

[J.G.Harston]

The number of international workers applying for a visa to work in the UK's tech sector dropped...

At the same time, domestic talent is expensive

Hey! You're not allowed to say UK businesses want foreigners because they're cheaper. Report for re-education.

[Tron]

The UK economy was based on a strong currency, easy access to labour and London's financial markets.

All three have been badly damaged. Sterling down 25% at Brexit making everything expensive. Migrant labour blocked, banned, charged for, and put off by the weak pound. You can make more elsewhere now. Too much of the City of London has hopped the border into the EU.

Skilling up the locals? No chance. Fantasy.

This was a one way street. There is no going back.

The UK as it was is now broken beyond the point of being fixable. Recalibrate for life in a much lower division, with fewer services and less cash. The sooner you make the transition, the better you will survive. Some entire sectors are toast, so exit them.

[clyde666]

And then there was covid

Don't forget the fallout from Covid.

Lots of people who got furloughed realised life didn't have to be that stressful any more. Given that it was mainly older workers who took that chance to change their lives, most of them would have been experienced even if they weren't the best.

It's not just about AI. There's a dearth of good trades-people. The older ones are all suffering from bad knees.

[David Hicklin]

Re: And then there was covid

Agree, it is quite revealing how many people I know whose life aim is to retire early - which I have already managed - to get out of this enshittified IT environment

[Snowy]

If you believe

Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister then who in charge does not change. What changes in the faces that the public sees, while behind the scene the senior civil service runs the show.