Isle Of Man Sees Drop In Work Permit Applications

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

23 August 2005

The Isle of Man's Department of Trade and Industry Work Permit Committee has recently completed its report on the Department’s work permit administration in 2004.

2004 saw the number of applications fall by almost 2,000, from the 2003 figure, to 10,838. This compares to the highest level of annual applications in 2002 of over 13,000.

The number of permits being renewed remained at just over a third of the total applications, and taken in conjunction with the overall fall in applications, confirms the trend, over the last two years, of a reduction in imported labour. The accession of an additional ten states into the EU in May 2004 saw a significant rise in work permit applications for nationals of those states, but this, as confirmed above, did not affect overall application numbers.

One particularly positive outcome was that the number of complaints to the Department’s Inspectors fell dramatically during the year to 105, representing almost a 50% reduction. The total number of employees covered by inspections by the Department’s officers during 2004 was 8,165 (2004 is the first year that this information has been collated in that way).

Applications from the professional/administration sector continue to be the single biggest area, accounting for 14% of applications, although the total has reduced by 185 compared to 2003. Hotel and catering applications showed a slight increase during 2004 from 7.8% of applications in 2003, to 9.7% in 2004.

Minister for Trade and Industry, Alex Downie noted:

"The role of the Work Permit Committee is a fundamentally important one administering the Island’s major control mechanism for incoming workers. As many people will be aware, the membership of the Committee changed on the 1st January 2005, the outgoing Committee having undertaken their duties, in an important and often difficult public service, with impartiality and integrity.

"I am delighted that the local economy continues to flourish and that unemployment rates have remained below 1.5%. It is particularly pleasing to see the significant reduction in work permit applications which I feel reflects, in part, our ongoing commitment to train, develop and upskill our own workforce."

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