The UK shortage occupation list no longer exists. Most hiring managers do not know that yet, and that gap between policy and awareness is costing British businesses time, money, and good candidates.
In April 2024, the original shortage occupation list UK was formally abolished. It was replaced by the Immigration Salary List, which removed the 20% salary discount that had made the Skilled Worker visa route more accessible for roles in genuine short supply. A Temporary Shortage List is due to follow later in 2026, but the details remain unconfirmed, and the policy landscape continues to shift.
Meanwhile, the underlying problem has not shifted at all. UK employers cannot find the skilled tech and finance professionals they need. The list changing names has not changed that reality. So what are the smartest employers doing about it?
They are looking elsewhere entirely.
What Was the Shortage Occupation List UK and What Has Replaced It?
The shortage occupation list UK was a register maintained by the Home Office and updated on the advice of the Migration Advisory Committee. It identified specific roles where the domestic labour market could not meet demand, and it gave employers hiring overseas workers for those roles a 20% salary concession against the standard Skilled Worker visa threshold.
That concession has now been significantly reduced. The Immigration Salary List, which replaced it, has largely removed the salary discount in practice. Employers who want to sponsor an overseas worker through the Skilled Worker route now need to meet the full going rate, which for many mid-level tech roles often sits above £40,000 per year in many cases, and can be significantly higher depending on the role.
Additionally, the sponsor licence process itself remains time-consuming and administratively intensive. Employers need to apply for a licence before they can issue a Certificate of Sponsorship, and first-time applications can take several weeks to process. For a business trying to move quickly on a critical hire, this timeline is a serious obstacle.
The Temporary Shortage List, expected later in 2026, may reintroduce some form of salary concession for genuinely scarce roles. However, no confirmed details have been published as of April 2026, and many employers cannot afford to wait.
Which Roles Are Most Affected by the UK Skills Shortage?
The skills gap driving the original shortage occupation list UK is most acute in technology, finance, and senior leadership functions. These are precisely the areas where UK businesses are struggling most to recruit domestically, and where the consequences of a vacancy running for months are most damaging.
Roles consistently cited as hardest to fill include software engineers and developers, cybersecurity specialists, data analysts and data engineers, cloud architects, finance business partners, and heads of technology. According to research published by the Confederation of British Industry, skills shortages are now cited as the single biggest constraint on UK business growth.
The irony is that the policy framework designed to address this problem has, if anything, made it harder to navigate. Employers who previously relied on the shortage occupation list as a route to international talent now face higher salary thresholds, longer processing times, and less certainty about what comes next.
The Real Cost of the Skilled Worker Visa Route
Before exploring the alternative, it is worth being clear about what the Skilled Worker visa route actually involves for an employer in practical terms.
First, you need a sponsor licence. If you do not already hold one, the application process requires you to designate authorising officers, submit organisational documentation, and wait for a Home Office assessment. Once granted, the licence itself costs £536 for small businesses and £1,476 for medium or large organisations.
Once licensed, issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship costs up to ~£525 per worker. The Immigration Skills Charge adds a further ~£480 per year for small businesses and ~£1,000+ per year for larger ones, for the duration of the worker’s visa.
On top of all of this, many businesses engage an immigration solicitor to manage the process, typically at a cost of between £1,500 and £5,000 per application.
And that is before you have paid a single penny of the employee’s salary.
A Simple Cost Comparison for an Accountant: UK Based SA Hire vs Remote SA Hire
To make this more tangible, it helps to compare what this looks like in practice for a typical mid-level role such as an accountant.
| Cost Component | UK-Based SA Hire (Visa Sponsorship) | Remote SA Hire (via EOR) | Explanation |
| Base Salary | ~£40,000/year (~R70k/month) | ~£22,000/year (~R40k/month) | UK visa requires minimum salary thresholds; SA salaries are market-aligned locally |
| Employer Costs (NI, pension) | +20% to 30% (~£8k–£12k/year) | Included in EOR fee | UK has additional statutory costs on top of salary |
| Visa & Sponsorship Costs | ~£2k – £4k/year equivalent | £0 | Includes Immigration Skills Charge, CoS, admin |
| Relocation / Setup | £3k – £10k (once-off) | £0 | Flights, accommodation, settling in |
| Total Annual Cost | ~£50k – £60k+ | ~£22k – £30k equivalent | Fully loaded cost comparison |
| Time to Hire | 8–12+ weeks | 2–4 weeks | Visa process vs immediate onboarding |
| Admin Complexity | High | Low | Sponsor licence, legal, compliance vs EOR handling |
Hiring a UK-based employee through the visa route can often cost nearly double the total cost of hiring the same level of talent remotely from South Africa, while also taking significantly longer and requiring more administrative effort.
Why UK Employers Are Turning to South Africa
South Africa has emerged as one of the most strategically compelling sources of international talent for UK businesses, and it remains significantly underutilised.
The reasons are straightforward. South African professionals work in English as a primary business language. The time zone sits at GMT+2, which means there is genuine working-hour overlap with UK-based teams throughout the day. The country produces a strong pipeline of graduates in technology, finance, and engineering disciplines through a well-established university system. Salary expectations, while fair and above South Africa’s local market rates for remote roles, are materially lower than equivalent UK hires.
Furthermore, South African professionals are familiar with international business culture. Many have worked with UK, US, and European clients directly or through previous remote positions. The integration curve that some employers worry about with more geographically or culturally distant markets tends to be considerably shorter.
Critically, none of this requires a sponsor licence, a Home Office application, or an immigration lawyer.
How HireJustNow Makes This Work
This is where the Employer of Record model changes everything.
HireJustNow acts as the legal employer of your South African hire in South Africa. That means HireJustNow handles employment contracts, payroll, tax compliance, statutory contributions, and all local HR administration on your behalf. You direct the work. HireJustNow manages the legal and operational infrastructure behind it.
Because your employee is based in South Africa and employed by a South African entity, there is no UK immigration process involved at all. You do not need a sponsor licence. You do not need to issue a Certificate of Sponsorship. You do not need to meet an Immigration Salary List threshold. You simply identify the candidate you want to hire, and HireJustNow gets them onboarded.
The typical timeline from identifying a candidate to having them fully employed and operational is between two and four weeks. Compare that to a Skilled Worker visa application, which can take eight to twelve weeks or longer for first-time sponsors, and the operational advantage becomes clear.
Cost savings are equally significant. Businesses consistently report total employment cost reductions of between 30% and 50% compared to equivalent UK hires, when employer National Insurance, pension contributions, and London-weighting are factored in.
From One Hire to a Full Remote Team
One of the strongest aspects of the HireJustNow model is that it scales as your needs grow.
Many UK businesses start with a single critical hire: a developer to clear a backlog, a finance analyst to strengthen a team ahead of a funding round, or a senior engineer to lead a project. Once they experience how smoothly the model works, the question quickly becomes how many more they can bring on board.
HireJustNow supports that growth without adding administrative complexity on your side. Whether you need one person or fifteen, the process is the same. The compliance infrastructure, payroll management, and HR administration remain with HireJustNow. You focus on building your team and delivering your product.
If you are a UK employer who has been waiting for the shortage occupation list UK to be restored, or hoping that the Temporary Shortage List will solve your hiring problem, it is worth considering whether that wait is costing you more than the alternative.
You can explore how HireJustNow works and start a conversation about your hiring needs at hirejustnow.com/hire-remotely.
Frequently Asked Questions: Shortage Occupation List UK
What roles are currently on the UK Immigration Salary List and Temporary Shortage List, and what does this mean for employers who cannot fill those positions domestically?
The Immigration Salary List, which replaced the original shortage occupation list UK in April 2024, reflects roles where there may still be structural shortages. However, the previous 20% salary discount has largely been removed in practice, and employers are now generally required to meet higher salary thresholds when sponsoring overseas workers. While limited and role-specific concessions may still apply in certain cases, the overall cost and complexity of the Skilled Worker route has increased. The Temporary Shortage List, expected later in 2026, is intended to reintroduce some form of concession for roles in genuine short supply, but confirmed details are not yet available. For employers who cannot fill roles domestically and do not want to wait for policy clarity, hiring through an Employer of Record in South Africa provides a fully compliant alternative that does not depend on either list.
What are the real costs and administrative burdens of sponsoring an overseas worker through the Skilled Worker visa route, and how does hiring a South African employee through an EOR compare?
Sponsoring an overseas worker involves obtaining a sponsor licence (up to £1,476 for larger organisations), issuing a Certificate of Sponsorship (up to £525 per worker), and paying the Immigration Skills Charge (up to £1,000 per year per worker). Many businesses also engage an immigration solicitor at a cost of £1,500 to £5,000 per application. By contrast, hiring through HireJustNow’s Employer of Record model involves a straightforward monthly fee per employee, with no licence fees, no immigration costs, and no Home Office interaction required. Total employment cost savings compared to a UK hire typically range from 30% to 50%.
Which tech and finance roles are most affected by the UK skills shortage right now, and how quickly can South African professionals step into those roles?
The most acutely affected roles include software engineers, cybersecurity specialists, data analysts, cloud architects, finance business partners, and senior technology leaders. South Africa produces strong graduates across all of these disciplines, and many South African professionals already have direct experience working with UK and European businesses in remote or hybrid arrangements. With HireJustNow managing the employment infrastructure, most hires can be fully onboarded within two to four weeks of a candidate being identified.
How does HireJustNow allow UK businesses to access international talent without needing a sponsor licence, an immigration lawyer, or a Home Office application?
HireJustNow acts as the legal employer of your hire in South Africa. Because the employee is employed by a South African entity and works remotely from South Africa, there is no UK immigration process involved. UK businesses are not bringing a worker into the UK; they are accessing talent who continues to live and work in South Africa. This means no sponsor licence, no Certificate of Sponsorship, no Immigration Skills Charge, and no Home Office application. HireJustNow handles all South African employment law compliance, payroll, and HR administration on your behalf.
What is the typical timeline from identifying a candidate in South Africa to having them fully employed and onboarded, and how does that compare to the UK visa sponsorship process?
With HireJustNow, the typical timeline from a signed offer to a fully onboarded employee is two to four weeks. This includes contract preparation, payroll setup, and all South African compliance requirements. By comparison, a first-time UK sponsor applying for a Skilled Worker visa can expect the sponsor licence application alone to take four to eight weeks, followed by the Certificate of Sponsorship and visa processing stages. The total timeline for a Skilled Worker visa hire is commonly eight to twelve weeks or longer, and that assumes no complications or Home Office queries arise. For businesses with urgent hiring needs, the EOR route is substantially faster.
Ready to stop waiting for visa policy to catch up with your hiring needs? Visit hirejustnow.com/hire-remotely to find out how quickly you can get the right person in the right role.