UKBA announces important changes to Resident Labour Market Test

The UK Border Agency (UKBA) has announced an important change to the resident labour market test, which is currently used to recruit Tier 2 sponsored migrant workers to the UK from outside the EU.

From 14th December, the UKBA will be extending the period of advertising for the resident labour market test to four weeks for all jobs.

The UKBA has introduced the changes to give British workers more opportunities to apply for jobs and to also raise the bar for foreign workers wishing to enter the United Kingdom.

This new change will replace the current requirement whereby jobs must be first advertised to (settled) British workers for two weeks, or one week for jobs where the salary is £40,000 or more.

Also, to provide flexibility to employers, the four week campaign will not need to run continuously; thus ensuring that any available resident workers that meet the requirements can be quickly recruited to skilled jobs.

If no suitable resident labour worker is available, employers must re-advertise the vacancy for a further two weeks before a tier 2 migrant can be appointed.

jobs.ac.uk is approved by Government as resident labour market test

In light of the forthcoming change, we would like to make all customers aware that advertising a vacancy on jobs.ac.uk, either as part of a milkround* or in conjunction with Jobcentre Plus**, has been approved by the UKBA as a resident labour market test for the education sector.

As stated on the official ‘occupation codes of practice for Tier 2’ document, jobs.ac.uk can be used as an approved resident labour market test for HE and FE teaching professionals, senior administrators of educational establishments, R+D professionals, chemists, engineers, researchers, lab technicians and many more.

To pass the resident labour market test, all jobs must be advertised on Jobcentre Plus (except under the exemption below); and using one other method permitted by the relevant code of practice e.g. jobs.ac.uk.

To summarise, there are two ways you can use jobs.ac.uk as a resident labour market test:

Milkround*

• If you recruit through a milkround, you do not need to advertise the job on Jobcentre Plus
• However, you will need to advertise the job on one of the UKBA’s approved websites, such as jobs.ac.uk, and also use at least one other method in the code
• jobs.ac.uk is an approved website for all milkrounds within the education sector

Standalone recruitment method**

• You can use jobs.ac.uk in conjunction with advertising on Jobcentre Plus for ‘Higher Education Teaching Professionals’ & ‘Further Education Teaching Professionals’ codes only

For more information about how to complete a resident labour market test, please refer to the UKBA’s official webpage here.

Also, if you have any questions about advertising on jobs.ac.uk, please don’t hesitate to contact our team on 024 7657 2839.

Kind regards

Carl Freelove
jobs.ac.uk