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Leeds to Benefit from £4.6bn Boost

02nd April 2008

By the year 2012 Yorkshire's skilled migrant workers will have contributed £4.6 bliion to the United Kingdom's economy.

The Future Flows report compiled by the Centre for Economics and Business Research estimated that by 2012 the total number of highly skilled migrants will rise to 812,000.

The 14,000 skilled migrant workers in Yorkshire and Humberside will account for 2 per cent of the migrant population. They will also help to boost the national economy by 6 per cent, which is a total of £77 bn.

The research also revealed that highly skilled migrants are working in over 1 million jobs in the United Kingdom. The figure is set to rise to at least 1.5 million over the next four years.

At the launch of the report it was stated that, "Skills are critical to the UK economy, but critically lacking in our workforce.

"Far from undermining the UK labour market, migration is vital to future economic stability, helping to fill in the gaps created by older and under-skilled workforces and make a important vital economic contribution."

He went on further to say, "Businesses in Yorkshire and Humberside need to embrace skilled migration, recruit from wider social groups, as well as offer flexible and rewarding working practices for home-grown talent, in order to safeguard their long-term and global competitiveness."

The industries to benefit from the skilled migrant workers are IT, telecommunications with the transport sector needing an extra 19,000 by 2012.

Skilled migrant workers will also be required for jobs in e-commerce and software specialists. The workers contribution to the British economy has been estimated at £16.2bn for that sector alone.

A large percentage of the highly skilled migrants migrate from the European Union which now includes Romania and Bulgaria.

London has continued to benefit from the influx of skilled migrant workers, which see the numbers rise to 365,000 living in the capital by 2012.

SOURCE:
Yorkshire Evening Post