Professional services giant KPMG has cancelled job offers to some foreign graduates in the UK after the implementation of tougher visa rules for overseas workers by the government.
According to the Financial Times, KPMG told some incoming graduates this week that their offers had been rescinded, and citing the decision on the new, higher minimum salary level required to sponsor a skilled worker visa in the UK.
The salary threshold for skilled workers was raised from £26,200 to £38,700 earlier this month, and to £30,960 for people under the age of 26, as ministers attempted to discourage immigration into the UK in a move announced back in December 2023.
KPMG, which hired 1,400 graduates and apprentices last year, said the changes to eligibility criteria had “unfortunately impacted some of our graduate programmes that were previously eligible for sponsorship under the skilled worker visa category”, according to the documents. The firm has not revealed how many offers have been revoked.
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The big four accounting and services firms – Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC – pay first-year graduates between £25,000 and £35,000 in the UK, meaning they are directly affected by the new visa rules.
KPMG has stopped hiring overseas graduates who need skilled worker visas outside of London as a result of the changes to the eligibility rules. Junior actuaries may be one group who are an exception to this, however.
The company told graduates they would not be able to defer their places to 2025, but could ask for a transfer to a different graduate programme this year if the role was eligible for sponsorship and places were still available.
The firm will now look to those already entitled to work in the UK to fill the places.
Last December home secretary James Cleverly stated: “This package of measures, taken in addition with the measures on student dependants that we announced in May, means that around 300,000 people who were eligible to come to the UK last year would not be able to in future, the largest reduction on record. Enough is enough. Immigration policy must be fair, legal and sustainable.”
Businesses have since warned that the new rules will damage sectors of the economy such as IT, architecture, engineering and creative work.
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Meanwhile, on 24 April, KPMG said it would start hiring more former prisoners following a two-year trial it described as “very positive”.
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