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Why do people come to the UK? To work

Published 29 February 2024

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Data relates to 2023 and all comparisons are with 2022 (unless indicated otherwise). All data includes dependants, unless indicated otherwise.

Having risen after the 2008 recession, the number of work visas granted were relatively stable across all work categories prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the end of the pandemic and the UK’s departure of the EU, the number of work visas granted increased, with ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visa numbers in particular growing sharply, following the expansion of the route in late 2021 to boost the social care workforce. The growth in this route has caused a large increase in the number of work-related dependants granted, with the majority of grants for dependants in the latest 2 years being on the ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visa.

Since 2021, other skilled work routes and ‘Temporary Worker’ visas also increased, but have levelled off in the latest year. ‘Investor, business development and talent’ visas and also ‘Other work’ visas have remained similar to pre-pandemic levels.

1.1 Main applicants

There were 337,240 work visas granted to main applicants in 2023, 26% higher than in 2022, and almost two and half times more (+146%) than prior to the pandemic in 2019. This was largely driven by ‘Care workers and home carers’ in the ‘Health and Care Worker’ route.

Figure 1: Work visas granted to main applicants between 2010 and 2023

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Notes:

  1. Work visa types are denoted by solid lines whilst the ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visa, which forms part of the ‘Worker’ category, is denoted by a dashed line, and includes data from the first full year of the visa. The route was introduced in 2020, along with the ‘Skilled Worker’ visa, and together replaced the ‘Tier 2- General’ visa, the main route from the ‘Worker’ category.
  2. ‘Other skilled routes’ includes the other visa routes in the ‘Worker’ category such as the ‘Skilled Worker’ and the ‘Senior or Specialist Worker’ visa.

Figure 1 shows that ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visas provided the vast majority of the growth in work visas in the latest year, almost doubling (+91%) to 146,477, compared with 2022. Whilst ‘Skilled Worker- Health and Care’ visa grants have been growing sharply over recent quarters, there are some indications that the rate of growth has slowed and that the numbers are beginning to fall. The number of grants in quarter 4 (October to December) 2023 fell by 37%, compared to quarter 3 (July to September) 2023, to 28,467. This reduction occurred across all the main occupations of health and care workers – with ‘Care workers and home carers’ down 41% (-12,304), ‘Senior care workers’ down 41% (-1,884) and ‘Nurses’ down 24% (-1,474). Whilst we would expect to see a reduction in visas granted for work in quarter 4 compared to quarter 3, the reduction in 2023 was much larger than the typical seasonality seen pre-pandemic.

‘Other skilled routes’ (including the ‘Skilled Worker’ and ‘Senior or Specialist Worker’), in contrast, have fallen slightly over the past year (-6%).

‘Care workers and home carers’ accounted for the vast majority of the increase in ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visas compared with the previous year, representing 89,236 grants in 2023.

Table 1: Visas granted in occupations under the ‘Skilled Worker - Health and Care’ visa - main applicants

Occupation 2022 2023 Change Percentage change
Medical practitioners 8,578 8,938 +360 +4%
Nurses 25,722 22,336 -3,386 -13%
Care workers and home carers1 19,864 89,236 +69,3721 +349%1
Senior care workers2 15,742 16,645 +903 +6%
Other and unknown3 6,818 9,322 +2,504 +37%

Source: Sponsored work entry clearance visas by occupation and industry – Occ_D02

Notes:

  1. ‘Care Workers and Home Carers’ became eligible for the ‘Skilled Worker - Health and Care’ visa in February 2022, following a recommendation by the Migration Advisory Committee in their annual report for 2021, and therefore it should be noted that 2022 is not a full comparison year.
  2. Senior care workers became eligible for the ‘Skilled Worker’ visa when it went live in December 2020 and were added to the list of eligible occupations for the ‘Skilled Worker - Health and Care’ visa in January 2021.
  3. Includes other occupations, and a small number of visas which couldn’t be matched to an occupation.

Figure 2: ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visas granted in 2023, broken down by occupation and nationality

Source: Sponsored work entry clearance visas by occupation and industry – Occ_D02

Notes:

  1. ‘Other and unknown’ includes other occupations, and a small number of visas which couldn’t be matched to an occupation.

Figure 2 shows that Indian (18,664), Nigerian (18,143) and Zimbabwean (15,279) nationals together represented almost 6 in 10 (58%) of visas granted to ‘Care workers and home carer’ occupations in 2023. Over half (51%) of grants for ‘Nurses’ were to Indian nationals with 11,322 grants, and Indian nationals represented just under a third (32%) of ‘Senior care workers’ with 5,301 grants.

According to the Labour Force Survey statistics from October to December 2023, published in the ONS Labour market overview, UK: February 2024 release, the number of non-UK nationals working in the UK has increased by 292,000 (+7%) in the past year to 4.49 million. There were an estimated 2.29 million non-EU nationals working in the UK, 254,000 higher (+12%) than a year earlier and an estimated 2.20 million EU nationals working in the UK, 38,000 higher (+2%) than a year earlier.

1.2 Dependants

In 2023, there were 279,131 grants to dependants of people who had been granted a work visa, 80% higher than in 2022, and over 5 times higher (+403%) than prior to the pandemic in 2019.

There were 52,099 grants to ‘Skilled Worker’ dependants and 203,452 grants to ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ dependants. These 2 routes together represented 92% of all work-related dependants in 2023.

Out of all the work visas granted in 2023 (including main applicants), 45% were granted to dependants. This proportion is an increase from 37% in the previous year and 29% in 2019, before the pandemic.

Figure 3: Visas granted to dependants of work visa holders by visa route, between 2019 and 2023

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Notes:

  1. The ‘Skilled Worker’ and ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visas were introduced in 2020 and together replaced the ‘Tier 2 – General’ visa.

Figure 3 shows that the rise in work dependants in 2023 was due to an increase in ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visas. Health and Care workers bringing their dependants now account for 73% of all work dependant visas granted, in comparison to 52% in the previous year. The rise in dependants on this route corresponds to the rise in main applicants, with this route bringing a proportionally high number of dependants.

In 2023, dependants represented 58% of all ‘Skilled Worker – Health and Care’ visas granted and 44% of ‘Skilled Worker’ visas. These proportions have risen slightly compared to the previous year (51% and 41%, respectively, in 2022). In comparison, in 2019, dependants accounted for 42% of ‘Tier 2 – General’ visas granted (which was replaced by the ‘Skilled Worker’ routes).

1.3 Temporary workers

In 2023, 44% of ‘Temporary Worker’ main applicant visas were for seasonal work, 30% were for the ‘Youth Mobility Scheme’ and the remaining 26% were for other temporary work.

The ‘Seasonal Worker’ route was launched in March 2019 with the number of visas that could be granted limited to 2,500 per year. This has since increased to 47,000 in 2023.

The number of ‘Temporary Worker’ visas granted to main applicants in 2023 was 74,683, slightly higher (+6%) than the previous year but 83% higher than prior to the pandemic in 2019 (40,914).

Figure 4: ‘Temporary Worker’ visas granted to main applicants between 2019 and 2023

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Figure 4 shows that grants of ‘Seasonal Worker’ visas decreased by 5% to 32,724 compared with the previous year, while the number of ‘Youth Mobility Scheme’ visas issued increased by 35% to 22,750 over the same period, returning to 2019 levels.

Table 2: Top 5 nationalities1 of ‘Seasonal Worker’ visas granted to main applicants in 2023

Nationality 2022 2023 Change Percentage
change
Kyrgyzstan 4,335 7,958 +3,623 +84%
Tajikistan 3,906 5,665 +1,759 +45%
Kazakhstan 2,673 5,014 +2,341 +88%
Uzbekistan 4,228 4,091 -137 -3%
Ukraine 7,332 2,535 -4,797 -65%
Other nationalities 12,010 7,461 -4,549 -38%
Seasonal Worker 34,484 32,724 -1,760 -5%

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Notes:

  1. Top 5 nationalities in the most recent year.

In 2023 the largest number grants of ‘Seasonal Worker’ visas were to Central Asian nationalities, while grants to Ukrainian nationals fell 65% - the proportion of grants to Ukrainian nationals decreased to 8%, compared with 21% in the previous year. Further information on Ukraine visa schemes can be found in the ‘Safe and legal (humanitarian) routes to the UK’ topic.

In 2023, grants of an extension in work routes for main applicants increased by 48% to 310,056, primarily driven by extensions in the ‘Skilled Worker - Health and Care’ visa route and the ‘Graduate’ work route.

490,268 extensions in work routes were granted in 2023, to main applicants and dependants.

Extensions in the ‘Skilled Worker’ and ‘Skilled Worker - Health and Care’ routes have increased from 193,312 in 2022 to 304,038 in 2023, for main applicants and dependants. Just over half of these extensions were to main applicants which account for 57% (173,499) of total extensions granted.

Analysis from the Migrant journey: 2022 report shows that around three-quarters of those arriving on work routes had expired leave 5 years later, suggesting most workers do not remain in the UK indefinitely. However, this varies by route: 38% of main applicants who were initially granted a visa in the ‘Worker’ category and 68% of ‘Investor, business development and talent’ visa main applicants held valid leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain after 5 years. However, ‘Temporary Workers’ by the nature of their visa are less likely to stay long term, and only 12% still had valid leave 5 years later.

Analysis linking the current category of leave to the previous category of leave shows that of the 490,000 work extensions granted to main apps and dependants in 2023, 240,000 held a study visa and 203,000 held a work visa before their current work extension.

2.1 Graduate route

The Graduate route was introduced on 1 July 2021 and allows students who have successfully completed a bachelor’s degree, postgraduate degree or other eligible course to stay in the UK for a period after their studies to work or look for work.

A total of 114,409 ‘Graduate’ route extensions were granted to main applicants in 2023, 57% (+41,430) higher than in 2022 (72,979). It accounted for over a third (37%) of extensions to main applicants into the Work category.

In 2023, Indian nationals represented the largest group of students granted leave to remain on the ‘Graduate’ route (50,053), representing 44% of grants of ‘Graduate’ route extensions to main applicants, reflecting that they are the nationality granted the most student visas in the last couple of years. Analysis of migrant journey: 2022 report data shows that one-fifth (20%) of students whose leave expired in 2022 switched to the ‘Graduate’ route following their studies.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish long-term international migration estimates. These are statistics under development that estimate the number of people immigrating to and emigrating from the UK for 12 months or more.

3.1 Sponsorship licensing for work and study

At the end of 2023, there were around 86,900 organisations and institutions registered as licensed sponsors for work and study.

Home Office management information indicates that there were 13,606 decisions on applications for sponsor licences between October to December 2023, 81% more than in October to December 2022 (7,535). Of these, 10,555 licenses were granted, and 3,051 applications were not granted (including both applications withdrawn and those rejected).

This data also shows that there were 42,890 decisions made in 2023, compared to 26,602 in 2022. Of the 42,890 decisions, 33,231 licences were granted (67% higher than the year before), and 9,659 were not granted (including both applications withdrawn and those rejected).

4. About these statistics

The statistics in this section provide an indication of the number of people who have an intention to enter the UK for work reasons. Further information and definitions can be found in the user guide.

Entry clearance visas allow an individual to enter and stay in the UK within the period for which the visa is valid. Data in this section refers to the number of Entry clearance visas granted for work reasons within the period. If an individual was granted a visa more than once in a given period, this has been counted as multiple grants in the statistics.

Year-on-year comparisons of the number of decisions can be affected by quarterly fluctuations in the data. These fluctuations can be examined in the quarterly data in the published tables. Year ending comparisons will also include impacts resulting from the travel restrictions put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Extensions of temporary stay in the UK relate to individuals inside the UK extending or changing the status of their right to stay in the UK. An individual is required to apply for an extension or change in status before their existing permission to enter or stay in the UK expires.

The statistics in this chapter show the number of grants and refusals on applications for extension of temporary stay in the UK. One individual may have made multiple applications for an extension, so may account for multiple decisions. Data in this section includes dependants and takes account of the outcomes of reconsiderations and appeals.

Data on the previous category of leave links current and previous leave types within and across case working systems, with a match rate of 99.7 to 99.9%. Of the successfully matched cases, 8% of previous case types were unknown. Figures and percentages are rounded to reflect this uncertainty.

5. Data tables

Data on immigration for work can be found in the following tables:

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See section 6 of the ‘About this release’ section for more details.

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