The New Year brings new proposals to address migrant numbers in Jersey

The States of Jersey has released details of "new measures" that it will introduce in order to: "reduce the number of permissions available to businesses to employ newer migrants".

The release, which can be found here, goes on to state:

"Over the next 12 months, large businesses that employ more registered workers than other businesses in the same sector will have their requirements carefully assessed by the Population Office."

(Registered workers are those persons ordinarily resident in Jersey for three continuous months and who do not fall within the "Entitled", "Licensed" or "Entitled for Work Only" categories. Our briefing, which can be found here, contains a detailed summary of the relevant law.)

The most recent Jersey Labour Market Report (June 2016) recorded the following information regarding "registered" worker numbers:

• 6,230 were employed in the private sector: an increase of 160 since June 2015;
• 90 were employed in the public sector: a decrease of 10 since June 2015;
• businesses falling within the "hotels, restaurants and bars" category employed the most registered workers (2,500);
• 640 were employed by business falling within the "financial and legal activities" category;
• sectors employing the fewest numbers included: "computer and related activities" (60); "manufacturing" (40); and "electricity, gas and water" (20).

A link to the report can be found here.

The impact of the measures, and their effectiveness, remains to be seen. However, the statistics indicate that employers operating in hospitality, agriculture, construction - and possibly those in the financial (and related) sectors of Jersey's economy - are most likely to be affected.