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Why do people come to the UK? To work

Published 22 August 2024

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Data relates to the year ending June 2024 and all comparisons are with the year ending June 2023 (unless indicated otherwise). All data includes dependants, unless indicated otherwise.

Between 2009 and 2019 the number of work visas granted were relatively stable. The COVID-19 pandemic restricted global travel throughout 2020 and parts of 2021, leading to a temporary fall in visa grants. On 31 January 2020 the UK left the European Union (EU) and following a ‘transition period’, which came to an end on 31 December 2020, made a number of changes to the UK Immigration system and at the same time ended freedom of movement between the UK and EU countries. These various changes led to a change in immigration for work.

There were 286,382 visas granted to main applicants in all work categories in the year ending June 2024, 11% fewer than the previous year, but more than double (+109%) 2019 levels.

Since the beginning of 2021, there has been an increase in the number of work visas granted, with ‘Health and Care Worker’ visa numbers in particular growing sharply between year ending September 2022 and year ending September 2023, following the expansion of the route in February 2022 to boost the social care workforce. The growth in this route was accompanied by a large increase in the number of work-related dependant visas granted, with the majority of all work dependants (62%) over the latest 3 years being on the ‘Health and Care Worker’ visa.

In December 2023, the Home Office announced a set of policy changes, impacting who can apply for work visas, which came into effect at various points in 2024. The number of ‘Health and Care Worker’ visas issued to main applicants has fallen in the most recent quarter – down 81% between April and June 2024 compared with the same period in 2023. Dependant visas have also fallen by 66% over the same period.

Other skilled work routes and ‘Temporary Worker’ visas also increased from 2021, but their numbers have levelled off in the last 2 years.

Figure 1: Work visas granted to main applicants between the year ending June 2014 and the year ending June 2024

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Notes:

  1. The ‘Worker’ visa line divides after 2021 (denoted by the dashed lines), when the ‘Health and Care’ visa was introduced alongside other skilled work. Prior to this, the ‘Worker’ category is comprised of visas under the previous ‘Tier 2’ points-based system.

1.1 Health and Care Workers, other skilled work routes, and their family members

There were 89,095 ‘Health and Care Worker’ visas granted to main applicants in the year ending June 2024, a 26% decrease compared to the previous year.

The increase in ‘Health and Care Worker’ visas in the 2 years between 2021 and 2023 (as shown in Figure 1), was due to more care workers and home carers coming to the UK, which peaked at 88,814 in the year ending December 2023. However, the number of care workers and home carers issued visas have fallen since the latter part of 2023. The fall in applications and grants towards the end of 2023 is likely due to more scrutiny applied by the Home Office to employers in the health and social care sector, and compliance activity taken against employers of migrant workers, as well as the recent policy measures affecting care workers introduced in March and April of this year. The number of grants for ‘Health and Care Worker’ main applicants fell by 81% to 6,564 grants between April and June 2024, compared with the same period in 2023 when there were 35,470 grants.

The number of grants to main applicants on other routes in the ‘Worker’ category (which includes ‘Skilled Worker’ visas) has increased by 79% since 2021, but in the latest year has fallen by 3%.

Figure 2: Visas granted to dependants of work visa holders by visa route, between the year ending June 2019 and the year ending June 2024

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Notes:

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

Figure 2 shows that the introduction of the ‘Health and Care’ and ‘Skilled Worker’ routes contributed to a large overall increase in visas issued to work dependants, from 53,260 in year ending June 2019 to 260,392 in year ending June 2024, with Health and Care’ dependants alone accounting for 69% of all work dependants in the latest year.

In the year ending June 2024, visas issued to dependants on the ‘Health and Care’ route were higher than visas issued to main applicants, with approximately 2 dependants per main applicant. By contrast, those on ‘Skilled Worker’ visas brought less than one dependant per main applicant. However, the number of ‘Health and Care’ dependants in the second quarter of 2024 was 15,198, 68% lower than the first quarter of 2024. This decrease in grants is likely influenced by falls in grants to main applicants since the third quarter of 2023, and the recent policy change for care worker dependants.

1.2 Temporary workers

The number of ‘Temporary Worker’ visas granted to main applicants in the year ending June 2024 was 77,419. This is slightly higher (+3%) than the previous year but almost double (+90%) the number in the year ending June 2019 (40,702), due to the growth in the ‘Seasonal Worker’ visa route.

In the year ending June 2024, 44% of ‘Temporary Worker’ visas granted to main applicants were for seasonal work, 31% were under the ‘Youth Mobility Scheme’ and the remaining 25% were for other temporary work.

Figure 3: ‘Temporary Worker’ visas granted to main applicants between the year ending June 2019 and the year ending June 2024

Source: Entry clearance visa applications and outcomes – Vis_D02

Figure 3 shows grants of ‘Seasonal Worker’ visas in the year ending June 2024 increased by 5% to 34,332 compared with the previous year. The ‘Seasonal Worker’ route was launched in March 2019 with the number of visas that could be granted limited to 2,500 per year. The annual quota has since increased to 47,000 for 2024, which partly explains the overall growth in ‘Temporary Worker’ visas issued over the last few years.

Whilst ‘Seasonal Worker’ visas have grown slightly in the latest year, the nationalities of applicants have changed. Central Asian nationalities (such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan) have together grown by 23% to 26,230 and represent three-quarters (76%) of grants in the latest year. Ukrainian nationals, in contrast have fallen by 62% to 1,208, following the start of the war in Ukraine and the launch of the Ukraine visa schemes in 2022.

The number of ‘Youth Mobility Scheme’ visas issued increased by 6% to 24,091 in the year ending June 2024 compared with the previous year. The rise in Youth Mobility since the year ending June 2021 could reflect a bounce-back for the scheme which was heavily impacted by travel restrictions during the pandemic, but recent numbers also include the addition of the India Young Professionals Scheme, which held its first ballot in February 2023. The route has a quota of 3,000 places each year, and in the year ending June 2024, there were 2,234 grants to Indian nationals under this scheme.

In the year ending June 2024, grants of an extension into work routes for main applicants increased by 38% compared to the previous year, to 378,732, primarily driven by extensions in the ‘Health and Care Worker’, ‘Skilled Worker’ and ‘Graduate’ work routes.

Analysis from the Migrant journey: 2023 report shows that of those arriving on work routes in 2018, 38% still held valid or indefinite leave 5 years later. This suggests most workers do not remain in the UK indefinitely, although this percentage has increased, from 23% for workers arriving in 2012.

The proportion who remain and are granted indefinite leave varies by route, and is considerably higher in the ‘Investor, business development and talent’ visa category where 77% of main applicants held valid leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain after 5 years. ‘Temporary Workers’ by the nature of their visa are less likely to stay long term, needing to obtain a new type of visa to do so, and only 14% who arrived on a temporary worker visa still held leave 5 years later.

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 147,051 Graduate route extensions were granted to main applicants in the year ending June 2024, 49% higher than in the year ending June 2023 (98,396). The Graduate route accounted for 39% of extensions to main applicants into the Work category.

There were also 49,721 grants to dependants on the Graduate route in the year ending June 2024, which was more than twice the number compared to the previous year (21,411).

In the year ending June 2024, Indian nationals represented the largest group of students granted leave to remain on the Graduate route (67,529), representing almost half (46%) of grants of Graduate route extensions to main applicants.

Around a third (32%) of students who came to the end of their studies in 2023 switched to the Graduate route (source: Analysis of migrants use of the Graduate route).

The Home Office publishes the number of ‘Skilled Worker’ and ‘Health and Care Worker’ visa applications by month in the Monthly monitoring of entry clearance visa applications publication.

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.

According to the Labour Force Survey statistics from April to June 2024, published in the ONS Labour market overview, UK: August 2024 release, the number of non-UK nationals working in the UK has increased by 179,000 (+4%) in the past year to 4.47 million. There were an estimated 2.35 million non-EU nationals working in the UK, 214,000 higher (+10%) than a year earlier and an estimated 2.12 million EU nationals working in the UK, 35,000 lower (-2%) than a year earlier.

3.1 Sponsorship licensing for work and study

At the end of June 2024, there were 102,167 organisations and institutions registered as licensed sponsors for work and study.

Home Office management information indicates that there were 11,620 decisions on applications for sponsor licences between April to June 2024, 27% more than in April to June 2023 (9,153). Of these, 8,098 licenses were granted, and 3,522 applications were not granted (including both applications withdrawn and those rejected).

This data also shows that there were 50,488 decisions made in the year ending June 2024, compared to 32,791 in the year ending June 2023. Of these decisions, 38,235 licences were granted (51% higher than the year before), and 12,253 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.

We have temporarily paused publication of the ‘Sponsored work visas by occupation and industry’ datasets, with the latest available data currently up to the end of March 2024. For applications in sponsored work visa routes, the Home Office has to use the latest Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) framework, which is a common classification of jobs in the UK (for example, care workers or cyber security professionals) overseen by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The pause is to allow us to investigate the differences between the old and new ONS frameworks and apply the new structure to Home Office sponsorship data. The intention is for this to enable us to produce comparable figures pre and post-change, and allow for future reporting that preserves the integrity and consistency of the analysis.

5. Data tables

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

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