The VNN Forum has reported on a recent announcement by the European Parliament that the proposed European Blue Card scheme for skilled immigrants will need to pass a crucial vote in the Civil Liberties Committee in early November.

Computer weekly have reported immigration lawyers and industry bodies predict that employers will NOT find it harder to get the IT skills they need when new immigration rules come into force in November, despite IT skills not being included on a new list of "shortage skills".

The Daily Telegraph reports that graduates are entering the toughest job market in years.

Are such dire predictions of recession – nay depression - the only side of the economic forecast for Britain? Media negativity aside, there is another view that suggests the UK might weather the impending economic storm more ably than some predict. There is still plenty of opportunity for graduates both from the UK and further afield.

Britain is Europe's leading business centre, inflation is low, and employment at the highest level for 30 years – making the thought that 195,000 students graduating this year might not step immediately into a well-heeled job seem less ominous.

The impact of this recession might even be less than that of the 1990s some experts say, because today's economy is more resilient. The demand for qualified, experienced people from countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa is still strong. Whatever the economic forecast,  areas such as IT show demand is very high and growing. A global survey of business chiefs carried out just last month found that their biggest worry is staffing problems and a crisis in IT skills. Fifty-eight per cent of CIOs and CEOs are worried about an insufficient number of staff (according to a survey commissioned by the independent IT Governance Institute (ITGI). 

Also, demand in areas such as the nursing sector continues to be very strong. The NHS gets enormous support from agency nurses; the bill for their services topped a massive £1b in 2005 and these trend seems set to continue.

The fact of life is that it goes on ... recession or not, experienced people that are highly skilled will always be in demand in the UK, and people will continue to want to come here because this is stable and prosperous country.

The news there is a present and growing IT skills shortage in the UK is nothing new. Nor is the notion that the gap is plugged by skilled immigrant workers. This report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research, for recruiters Harvey Nash, just throws out more alarming statistics.

The UK will need an extra 19,000 skilled migrants by 2012 in IT, telecoms and transport.
A Harvey Nash report also found skilled migrants to the UK will top 800,000 within four years, making a contribution to the UK of £77b.

By 2010, jobs in industries that depend heavily on information and communication technology will account for half the total in Europe. The EU needs 20m skilled workers over the next 20 years.
To meet this demand, European eyes are turned overseas.

The EU last year unveiled a blue card for skilled migrants. It is a direct response to the US's green card. What some call the land of tax breaks and opportunity, the US, gets the lion's share of skilled labour (55%) compared to the EU's puny 5%.

But the blue card's political passage is far from smooth. Aimed at highly skilled migrant workers from Asian and African countries, they would get all the social and financial benefits of their newly-adopted country and their immigration there fast tracked.

But opponents say this has nothing to do with meeting the skills shortage, but is politically motivated to centralise Europe and give Brussels the say on levels of economic migrants.

Whether the blue card succeeds or fails, it's going to take a while to get the political nod. Opponents make another good point: they say skilled migrants are clever enough to know how to negotiate the immigration procedure and business is clever enough to know where to find them and tempt them over.