The United Kingdom’s Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has announced three significant changes intended to support domestic workers and raise the bar for foreign workers wishing to enter the country. As of April 1, the UK government will:

• strengthen the resident labor market test for tier two skilled jobs so that employers must advertise jobs to resident workers before bringing in a worker from outside Europe;
• use each shortage occupation list to trigger skills reviews that focus on training resident workers for these occupations; and
• tighten new criteria against which highly skilled migrants seeking entry to the United Kingdom are judged, by raising the educational qualifications and salary required for tier 1 (General) of the points-based system.

Home Secretary Smith said: 

“Just as in a growth period we needed migrants to support growth, it is right in a downturn to be more selective about the skill levels of those migrants, and to do more to put British workers first.”