Temporary Shortage List 2027: 28 Jobs MAC Wants Kept

The UK Just Recommended Cutting Its Sponsorship Job List From 52 to 28 — Here’s the Full 2027 List

If your UK job offer sits below degree level, the list that keeps it sponsorable is about to get a lot shorter. On 23 July 2026 the Migration Advisory Committee published the final stage of its review of the Temporary Shortage List 2027, and it recommends keeping just 28 occupations — down from the 52 on the list running today.

The government has not accepted it yet. That distinction matters more than anything else in this article, and we’ll come back to it. But the direction is now on the record, in an 83-page report, with named occupations and dates attached.

Quick answer: On 23 July 2026 the Migration Advisory Committee recommended that 28 mid-skilled occupations keep UK Skilled Worker sponsorship, down from 52 on the interim Temporary Shortage List. Access would run 18 months, from 1 January 2027 to 30 June 2028. The government has not yet accepted the recommendation.

What the Temporary Shortage List actually does

Since 22 July 2025, the UK Skilled Worker route has generally been closed to jobs below RQF Level 6 — roughly graduate level. That single change removed a large block of occupations from sponsorship overnight.

The Temporary Shortage List is the exception to it. Written into the Immigration Rules at Appendix Skilled Worker paragraph SW 6.1A, it lets named occupations at RQF Levels 3 to 5 stay eligible for sponsorship even though they sit below the graduate threshold. If your occupation is on the live list, a licensed UK employer can still sponsor you. If it isn’t, and it’s below degree level, it can’t.

It was always designed to be temporary. Every entry on the current interim list is scheduled to lapse on 31 December 2026 unless the government extends or replaces it, and the Home Office kept the power to remove an occupation earlier than that.

To decide what a permanent version should look like, the Home Office commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee — the independent body that advises ministers on migration — to run a two-stage review. Stage 1, published in October 2025, shortlisted 82 occupations for closer examination. Stage 2 is the report that just landed.

What the MAC recommended on 23 July 2026

The committee assessed the 82 shortlisted occupations against evidence of genuine shortage, the credibility of sector “Jobs Plans” for training and recruiting workers already in the UK, exploitation risk, and whether migration was even the right answer to the gap. Jobs Plans were submitted for 46 of them.

Out of that, per the report published on GOV.UK, 28 occupations were recommended for the future list — and every one of them for an initial 18 months only, expected to run from 1 January 2027 to 30 June 2028. Not a single occupation, the committee concluded, made a strong enough case for the standard three-year access.

The MAC was blunt about why: it found sectors were often thin on detail about how they would actually increase domestic recruitment. It also said it had been deliberately pragmatic because this was the first time the exercise had been run, and that a future review applying the same standard to the same quality of evidence would likely recommend fewer occupations, not more.

The scale is smaller than the headline suggests. GOV.UK’s report notes the 82 in-scope occupations accounted for roughly 10,000 visas a year on average between 2022/23 and 2024/25, while the 28 recommended represent around 4,000 a year. Most of the reduction, the committee said, would come from a handful of office-based roles with fairly generic skill requirements where employers had been sponsoring in volume.

Personnel Today reported that a Fragomen partner read the report as evidence of how closely the committee had stuck to the brief it was given. That is a fair summary: this is a report written to a narrow specification, not a broad defence of mid-skilled migration.

The full list: 28 occupations recommended for the 2027 Temporary Shortage List

Twenty of these are carried over from the current interim list. Eight are new. The eight additions are marked NEW.

Engineering, manufacturing and process

1. Electrical and electronics technicians
2. Engineering technicians
3. Sheet metal workers — NEW
4. Metal machining setters and setter-operators — NEW
5. Metal working production and maintenance fitters
6. Welding trades
7. Boat and ship builders and repairers
8. Planning, process and production technicians
9. Metal plate workers, smiths, moulders and related occupations — NEW
10. Chemical and related process operatives — NEW

Digital and technical

11. Database administrators and web content technicians
12. Data analysts
13. Telecoms and related network installers and repairers
14. CAD, drawing and architectural technicians
15. Building and civil engineering technicians

Construction trades

16. Bricklayers — NEW
17. Roofers, roof tilers and slaters — NEW
18. Carpenters and joiners — NEW
19. Plasterers — NEW
20. Floorers and wall tilers
21. Painters and decorators
22. Plumbers and heating and ventilating installers and repairers
23. Pipe fitters
24. Electricians and electrical fitters
25. Construction and building trades supervisors
26. Construction and building trades n.e.c. — narrowed to building envelope specialists and curtain wall installers only

Energy and maritime

27. Electrical and electronic trades n.e.c. — narrowed to overhead line workers only
28. Ship and hovercraft officers

Those last two entries deserve attention if you work in them. Both codes are currently broader than the recommendation. “Construction and building trades n.e.c.” presently also covers builders, divers, fence erectors, industrial climbers, ROV operators, steel fixers and underpinners — none of which appear in the narrowed recommendation.

The 32 occupations that would fall off the list

Comparing the interim list as published against the MAC’s recommended 28 leaves 32 occupations off. Grouped by sector, they are:

• Business, finance and admin: managers in logistics; directors in consultancy services; financial and accounting technicians; insurance underwriters; estimators, valuers and assessors; business sales executives; advertising and marketing associate professionals; human resources and industrial relations officers; credit controllers; book-keepers, payroll managers and wages clerks; pensions and insurance clerks and assistants; financial administrative occupations n.e.c.; business associate professionals n.e.c. (including clinical coders, clinical trials administrators and research coordinators); legal associate professionals
• IT and technical support: IT operations technicians; IT user support technicians; information technology trainers; computer system and equipment installers and servicers; security system installers and repairers
• Creative: authors, writers and translators; photographers, audio-visual and broadcasting equipment operators; dancers and choreographers; clothing, fashion and accessories designers; design occupations n.e.c. (industrial and product designers, packaging designers, performance make-up artists, set designers, visual merchandising)
• Motor trade: vehicle technicians, mechanics and electricians; vehicle body builders and repairers; vehicle paint technicians
• Laboratory, energy and other: laboratory technicians; quality assurance technicians; air-conditioning and refrigeration installers and repairers; steel erectors; energy plant operatives

Two patterns are worth naming. The first is that office-based roles took the heaviest hit — exactly what the MAC said would drive most of the reduction. The second is that the construction picture is not uniformly positive: bricklayers, roofers, carpenters and plasterers gain access, while steel erectors and steel fixers lose it.

One caution on this comparison. The authoritative version of the current list is the live GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List page, and the Home Office can change it at any time. Check your own occupation code there before you act on anything here.

Why construction and manufacturing kept access

The committee’s stated reason for the 28 was that shortage evidence looked plausible and the Jobs Plans submitted were at least relevant to the causes of the shortage — while noting the quality of those plans varied. In some cases it judged temporary migration access proportionate simply because the occupation mattered to immediate government priorities like housebuilding and infrastructure delivery.

Read alongside the framing of the list — mid-skilled roles judged critical to the Industrial Strategy or to building critical infrastructure — the logic is fairly consistent. A bricklayer builds houses the government has committed to building. A marketing associate professional does not, and the MAC found employers had been sponsoring those roles in relatively high numbers.

The committee also expects the first cohort to be reviewed again before the 18-month window closes, with future decisions leaning harder on whether workforce initiatives have actually produced trained workers.

What has not changed — and this is the important part

Nothing in the Immigration Rules changed on 23 July 2026. The MAC advises; it does not legislate.

For that recommendation to bite, the government has to accept it and then amend the Immigration Rules through a Statement of Changes. As of late July 2026 it has confirmed neither which recommendations it accepts nor what transitional arrangements will apply to workers and employers mid-process.

So, concretely:

• The interim Temporary Shortage List remains fully in force until 31 December 2026 — including all 52 occupations currently on it.
• The 28 recommended occupations have no legal effect right now. An employer cannot sponsor a bricklayer today on the strength of the recommendation, because bricklayers are not on the live list.
• Existing permission is not retroactively cancelled by a list change. Where an occupation is removed, the practical effect falls on new Certificates of Sponsorship, not on visas already granted.

If you see a page claiming the list “has changed to 28 jobs,” it’s wrong. It’s been recommended.

If you’re job-hunting from overseas: the five-month window

Between now and 31 December 2026 the current list is the operative one, and it is broader than what has been proposed for 2027. That window is the practical takeaway.

If your occupation is on the current list but not on the recommended 28 — a vehicle technician, an IT support technician, a book-keeper, a lab technician — this is the period where sponsorship is still legally available for your role. Waiting until 2027 to start looking is the one clearly bad strategy. The relevant milestone is when your employer assigns the Certificate of Sponsorship, so timing conversations with a prospective sponsor around that matters.

If your occupation is on the recommended 28 and already on the current list, you’re in the strongest position available — though the recommendation is 18 months of provisional access, not permanence, and the next review is already scheduled.

If your occupation is one of the eight additions — a bricklayer, roofer, carpenter, plasterer, sheet metal worker, machining setter, metal plate worker or chemical process operative — you cannot be sponsored under the TSL yet. Watch for a Statement of Changes rather than the MAC report.

If you’re already in the UK on a sponsored RQF 3–5 role, the route the MAC has consistently pointed to is switching in-country into a graduate-level Skilled Worker role, which keeps the longer-term settlement picture intact in a way a shrinking temporary list does not.

Immigration decisions turn on individual facts, and this is general information rather than legal advice. For anything where money or a move is on the line, use a regulated adviser and the official GOV.UK guidance.

The rules that still apply to every TSL job

Being on the list only solves the skill-level problem. Everything else in the Skilled Worker route still applies:

• Salary. The list gives no automatic discount. Each occupation has its own published rate on the GOV.UK page, with a lower rate available only to workers whose first Skilled Worker permission predates 4 April 2024 and has been held continuously since. Note that legal commentary differs on how the general threshold — raised to £41,700 from 22 July 2025 — interacts with per-occupation TSL rates, so treat the live GOV.UK figure for your specific code as the number that counts.
• Dependants. New dependants are not permitted for workers sponsored in RQF 3–5 roles on either the TSL or the Immigration Salary List, other than under transitional protection predating 22 July 2025. This is frequently the deal-breaker, and the MAC’s Stage 1 report did not propose changing it.
• English. The Skilled Worker requirement for new applicants rose from B1 to B2 on 8 January 2026, while the MAC’s TSL design work referred to a B1 floor for listed roles. Confirm the current standard for your route on GOV.UK before booking a test.
• A licensed sponsor. You need a UK employer holding a Skilled Worker sponsor licence who will assign you a Certificate of Sponsorship. No licence, no application — regardless of which list your job is on.

One clarification worth making, because it is a common misreading: the 18-month period applies to how long an occupation would sit on the list. It is not a cap on the length of a visa granted to someone sponsored in that occupation.

Dates that matter

Date	What happens
22 July 2025	Skill threshold rises to RQF 6; interim TSL takes effect; dependant restrictions begin
9 October 2025	MAC Stage 1 report — 82 occupations shortlisted
8 January 2026	Skilled Worker English requirement rises to B2 for new applicants
23 July 2026	MAC Stage 2 report — 28 occupations recommended
31 December 2026	Interim TSL and Immigration Salary List entries scheduled to lapse
1 January 2027	Proposed start of the 18-month revised list, if accepted
30 June 2028	Proposed end of that 18-month window

Key Takeaways

• The MAC recommended 28 occupations for the Temporary Shortage List on 23 July 2026, down from the 52 on the current interim list.
• Twenty are carried over, eight are new, and 32 fall off the recommendation.
• Every recommendation is for 18 months only — 1 January 2027 to 30 June 2028 — and no occupation was judged to merit full three-year access.
• Construction, engineering, manufacturing and a handful of technical digital roles kept access. Office, finance, HR, creative, motor trade and IT support roles largely did not.
• None of this is law yet. The interim list stands until 31 December 2026 and the government has not confirmed what it will accept or what transitional arrangements will apply.
• If your occupation is on today’s list but not on the recommended 28, the months before 31 December 2026 are the window where sponsorship for your role is still legally available.

Sources

• GOV.UK — Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report (published 23 July 2026)
• GOV.UK — Temporary Shortage List: Stage 1 report (published 9 October 2025)
• GOV.UK — live Temporary Shortage List page (authoritative for current eligibility)
• Electronic Immigration Network — report summary and full 28-occupation list
• Personnel Today — coverage of the Stage 2 recommendations
• Fragomen — client alert on the Stage 2 report
• DavidsonMorris — Temporary Shortage List guide, including the interim occupation table

FAQ