British doctors face unemployment

BBC News:

Unemployment has become a serious threat to junior doctors, the British Medical Association has warned.

It said intense competition for posts had left many without jobs to go to when their contracts end next week.

In a letter to Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt, the BMA said many junior doctors were considering leaving the country or quitting medicine.

The Department of Health admitted competition for posts was fierce, and said it was reviewing the situation.

The BMA said the number of places at medical school had increased and applications from overseas were rising - but the number of postgraduate training posts had not increased at the same rate.

At the same time, many jobs have been phased out as a result of the introduction of a new training structure.

And things are probably going to get even worse for British doctors:

But Andrew Lansley, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, said: "It is crazy for hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of recently qualified doctors from overseas to come to the UK looking for training posts; with the result that UK qualified doctors may fail to get training posts."

I guess this is what the British government calls one of the "benefits" of immigration.