London: Declining standards among British graduates are leading companies to fill jobs with foreign workers as employers believe they are too poorly educated to rival immigrants, a study has warned.

The companies believe that standards are declining fast among graduates and school-leavers and want migrants to fill jobs instead, it said.

One in five firms have recruited migrant workers this summer and a similar number will do so during the autumn, the Daily Mail reported on Monday.

A third of the immigrant staff will be brought in from outside Europe, according to the report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and KPMG.

Managers believe that British candidates do not have the skills to match migrants and that the readiness of Britons for work is getting worse year by year.

Four out of ten employers think literacy and numeracy among British graduates and school-leavers has worsened over the past five years.

A third think that business acumen has fallen off among British candidates and more than a third think their personal skills are worse now than five years ago.

The Labour Market Outlook report said that demand for immigrant workers is rising in line with improvements in the economy.

Author Gerwyn Davies warned that multinational companies will shift jobs abroad if they cannot get qualified staff in Britain.

He said that the proposed migration cap, which is due next year, comes at a time when many employers are still struggling to fill skilled vacancies despite the high unemployment rate.

The resulting shortfall of skilled candidates following the cap could damage British companies, Davies said.

But Immigration Minister Damian Green said, "Businesses are going to have to reduce their reliance on migrant workers as this has done nothing to help the millions of unemployed."

Numbers of skilled workers coming in from outside Europe this year were cut by five per cent in June as an "interim measure" before the overall cap comes into effect next year. IANS