Skilled Worker visas in ninth consecutive decline, as fewer nurses, therapists and scientists come to the UK

After a series of restrictions to migrant workers’ rights and successive increases to employer costs, the number of Skilled Worker visas issued to foreign nationals coming to the UK to work is now at its lowest level since 2021. 

Significantly fewer migrant care workers, nurses, therapists, scientists, education professionals, and skilled tradespeople are coming to work in the UK, compared to a couple of years ago.

If the government’s plan was to reduce immigration at all costs, it’s working. But as vacancies in critical sectors remain unfilled and the risks of labour exploitation inherent in sponsorship continue, this focus seems increasingly misplaced.

Skilled Worker visas at four-year low

With 45,797 Skilled Worker type visas issued in 2025 to main applicants, this is the lowest yearly figure for work visas granted to migrant workers coming to the UK since the UK left the EU (see Figure 1).

This trend was largely driven by a sharp drop in Health and Care Worker visas. Successive governments’ decisions to restrict care workers’ right to bring dependants, increase minimum salary requirements, and ramp up compliance checks against employers have reduced the number of Health and Care Worker visas to a sliver - from a peak of 45,071 in Q3 2023, to just 1,620 in Q4 2025.

Figure 1. Number of Skilled Worker and Health and Care Worker visas issued to main applicants, 2021-2025

Skilled Worker visa numbers issued under the general route have also more than halved, from a peak of 21,035 in Q3 2022, to just 6,072 in Q4 2025, as the government implemented major increases to the minimum salary requirements, closed the route to many roles below graduate level, and raised employer sponsorship costs. 

Overall, Q4 2025 marks a downward trend in the number of skilled workers coming to the UK from abroad, for the ninth consecutive quarter.

Fewer care workers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals

If the decline in work migration is largely in line with the Labour government’s stated aims, a closer look at the range of professionals who received fewer work visas to the UK reveals a worrying picture.

The number of visas granted for Caring Personal Service roles (SOC2020 code 613), which falls under the Health and Care Worker visa route, saw the steepest decline in absolute terms, from 107,847 in 2023, to as little as 3,178 in 2025 (and just 23 in Q4 2025). This is despite Skills for Care data showing that as of January 2026, as many as 78,330 roles remain vacant across the adult social care sector in England, with a vacancy rate of 6.3%, at nearly three times the national average. For care worker roles this is as high as 7.6%.

But migrant care workers are just one of many cohorts of professionals who received significantly fewer entry clearance visas. The health sector was the second most affected (see Figure 2). 

Figure 2. Number of Skilled Worker type visas granted to main applicants, selected SOC2020 codes, 2023-2025

Last year saw a massive 74% decrease in the number of visas granted to Health Professionals (SOC2020 code 22), which dropped from a peak of 38,997 in 2022, to 10,060 in 2025. This includes a:

• 93% decline in visas granted to Nursing Professionals (SOC code 223), from a peak of 26,100 in 2022, to 1,777 in 2025. This is as 25,504 vacancies remained unfilled for registered nursing staff roles in September 2025, according to NHS England.

• 30% decline in visas granted to Medical Practitioners (SOC code 221) including GPs, from a peak of 8,958 in 2023, to 6,280 in 2025; 

• 73% decline in visas granted to Therapy Professionals (SOC code 222), from a peak of 1,271 in 2023 to 337 in 2025. This is as the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists reported a 14% vacancy rate across the NHS and independent sectors.

Fewer scientists, teachers, and skilled tradespeople

A similar story of entry clearance visa numbers in decline is visible across other professional categories (see Figure 2). The Home Office granted:

• 63% fewer visas to Science, Research, Engineering and Technology professionals (SOC2020 code 21), from a peak of 24,843 in 2022, to 9,072 in 2025.

• 71% fewer visas to Teaching and Other Education Professionals (SOC2020 code 22), from a peak of 2,611 in 2023, to 751 in 2025. This is as the National Foundation for Educational Research in March last year reported an unfilled vacancy rate six times higher than pre-pandemic.

• 73% fewer visas to Skilled Trade Professionals (SOC2020 code 5), from a peak of 14,079 in 2023, to 3,848 in 2025. 

Figure 3. Number of Skilled Worker type visas granted to main applicants, selected SOC2020 codes, 2023-2025

The only increases across any major occupational group were in visas for Process, Plant and Machine Operatives (SOC2020 code 8). 

Time to change focus

For businesses and public services that have historically experienced shortages and are now finding it even harder to fill vacancies, the decline in Skilled Workers is alarming news.

The government’s rationale has been that further restricting overseas recruitment will force employers to recruit and invest in the domestic workforce. In practice however, things are significantly more complex. As explained by Matthew Percival of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), businesses already have incentives to invest in domestic skills training, but can only do so once they have a stable workforce in the immediate. The absence of skill is why they're going "to the international market in the first place." 

Investment in the local workforce is not just a question of will, it’s also a question of funds, as argued by the Homecare Association, which noted that “27% of homecare contracts in England are at rates below direct employment costs at the legal minimum wage.” Perhaps most evidently, even if all employers up investment in training, some roles take years to train for.   

The other concern for us as labour rights advocates, is the government’s narrow focus on reducing immigration, at a time when other aspects of the system are in urgent need for reform.

For more than two years, we and other labour rights advocates have evidenced how the principle of employer sponsorship, which underpins the Skilled Worker visa, enables exploitation. While fewer migrant workers are coming to work in the UK, those who do are tied to their employers, and have significantly less bargaining power than their British counterparts. 

Instead of addressing these risks and delivering on their White Paper commitment to give migrant workers more flexibility to change employers, the Home Secretary has recently announced plans to extend the tie of sponsorship even longer. Her radical new “earned” settlement proposals published in November last year would double the time before most people can settle and acquire the unrestricted right to work from five years to 10 years, and increase the wait to 15 years for workers in medium-skilled roles.

If the latest data shows the government’s measures to reduce migration are working, the bigger picture is that this can come with severe consequences for the delivery of public services, research institutes, business objectives, and workers’ rights. It is time to change focus.