BPO opportunity seen in UK due to UK 'knowledge worker' shortage

MANILA, Philippines--The current shortage of "knowledge workers" in the United Kingdom is good news for the country's outsourcing push in Europe.
A recent report from The Work Foundation, a London-based research and consultancy firm, said that the UK will need to attract more highly skilled workers from overseas for its high technology and "'knowledge intensive" industries.
The report's author noted that numbers are "relatively low," with only 167,000 high skilled workers in the country.
Reached for comment, Stephanie Weber, European IT Services Center (EITSC) business development manager, said UK companies have been suffering from the skills shortage for some time now.
According to the report, Filipinos are the third largest group of highly-skilled migrant workers, with a population of around 10,000. Indian nationals are by far the largest group with more than 45,000 followed by about 25,000 workers from the United States.
Next to the Philippines is South Africa (8,000) and Australia (6,500).
Under the previous work permit regime in the UK, 24 percent of highly skilled migrants were ICT professionals, 13 per cent were service managers and almost 10 percent in the healthcare sector.