Employers are recruiting more foreign workers as growing numbers of British people say they are too ill to take a job.
The number of employers registered with the Home Office to provide visas to skilled workers has reached 78,576, triple the figure of 2019.
It highlights the challenge facing Rishi Sunak after he vowed to cut record levels of immigration into the UK.
The Government has launched a ￡2.5billion “back to work plan” that includes helping people with mental illnesses return to employment and ending benefit payments for those who refuse to accept help from job centres.
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But official figures show there are still 2.6million people who say they cannot work due to long-term illness, up from two million before the Covid pandemic.
There are 934,000 vacant jobs in the UK (Image: PA)
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They are among 8.8million people of working age classed as “economically inactive”, which means they are neither in work nor looking for work.
At the same time, there are 934,000 vacant jobs in the UK. It means businesses are increasingly looking overseas for staff and the number of work visas granted rose to 335,447 last year, according to Home Office figures - up 35 percent compared with the year previously.
Mr Sunak is under pressure to act after the net migration figure reached a record 745,000 - despite pledges in the 2019 Tory election manifesto to get the number down.
The Government is introducing tough new rules increasing the minimum salary required for those arriving on the Skilled Worker visa, and the minimum income needed to bring someone in on a family visa.
Len Shackleton, research fellow at the Institute for Economic Affairs, said: “One particular concern is the number of young people with mental health problems, for which there is a long queue for treatment. Some of these may be less serious problems, and we need to be sure that people are just not signed off too easily into inactivity - for this may be just the beginning of 50 or more years being supported by the state.
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“Bringing in a constant stream of migrants to support gaps in the labour market may suit some employers, but again we need to look at the longer-term consequences.
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“The UK needs to raise skill levels and create a climate for investment in productivity-boosting innovation rather than just drifting on with ‘patchwork solutions’. This means lower taxes and scrapping unnecessary regulation across the economy. No sign of this happening, alas.”
Ministers privately admit that failure to cut NHS waiting lists has undermined attempts to get more people into work. One in four adults are currently on an NHS waiting list for a hospital appointment, test or some form of medical treatment, with many waiting more than a year.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is expected to introduce more measures to make work pay in his March 6 Budget. Although National Insurance rates were cut last month, a freeze in income tax and National Insurance thresholds in April will mean many workers pay more tax in real terms.
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