QS’s have been added to a British Home Office list of professions that are facing skills shortage. This move will allow firms to recruit skilled practitioners from abroad. Firms have been struggling to recruit experienced UK based and overseas QS's for some time.
Recent research by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors revealed there were around 6,500 QS vacancies across the UK in January 2007. Forty-nine per cent of these were unfilled for more than six months and 35 per cent for more than 12 months.