‘UK hiring cap affecting companies’

The limit placed by the David Cameron government on the number of professionals British firms can hire from outside the European Union is preventing the recruitment of key employees from India, according to companies.

The limit placed by the David Cameron government on the number of professionals British firms can hire from outside the European Union is preventing the recruitment of key employees from India, according to companies.

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General Electric, one of the major employers in Britain with 18,000 workers, has complained that it has been unable to hire a stem-cell research executive from India because of the “very, very small” quota given to it to hire people from outside the EU.

It has also not been able to hire gas turbine engineers from outside the EU due to the annual limit placed by the government.

The cap has placed at 24,100 until April 2011, by when a permanent cap will be in place. General Electric is the latest in the list of companies that Business Secretary Vince Cable says have been prevented from hiring the required skills from outside the EU because the skills are not available locally. According to Cable, the annual cap is already affecting the country’s economic recovery.