It's tight, and it's expensive. In 2025 there were 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies in UK manufacturing, costing the economy £6bn in lost output every year, according to Make UK's Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report 2025. Skills sit at the top of the worry list: Barclays Corporate's 2024 skills shortage research found manufacturers name skills shortages (75%), recruitment (36%) and talent retention (32%) as their biggest barriers to growth.
Engineering, the discipline behind rising aerospace build rates, feels it just as sharply. The Institution of Engineering and Technology reported in 2025 that 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills at the top of the list. So when build rates lift, employers aren't drawing from a comfortable pool. They're competing hard for a scarce one.
The brief is widening in two directions at once: what the job is, and who's available to do it. Automation and digital tools are reshaping the shop floor. Make UK's 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap report found six in ten (59%) manufacturers cite automation and half (50%) cite wider digitalisation as trends changing jobs and skills needs, with 74% expecting demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to rise by 2030. That's why a single-trade vacancy increasingly asks for production knowledge plus digital and problem-solving skills.
Demand is also concentrated. Skills England's Assessment of priority skills to 2030 puts digital, adult social care, construction and engineering among the occupations with the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030. Skills England's annual skills report 2026 confirms digital, engineering and construction occupations appear most commonly among priority roles, many already seeing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly.
Two dynamics make the brief harder to fill. First, the pipeline is thin at the bottom: GOV.UK's snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK shows engineering entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap. Second, existing people are on the move. Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report found 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026. Retaining and attracting the same skilled people is the new normal.
Start by writing the brief around skills, not just a job title. With 74% of manufacturers expecting demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to rise by 2030 per Make UK, describe the production, digital and problem-solving capabilities the role actually needs, then be open to people who can grow into the rest.
Build your own pipeline rather than waiting for the finished article. The entry-level gap in engineering reported by GOV.UK tells you the ready-made mid-career hire is scarce, so apprenticeships and internal upskilling protect future build rates. And plan mostly around home-grown talent: GOV.UK's review of professionals in engineering notes the vast majority of new engineering hires come from the resident labour force, showing low reliance on international recruitment.
Finally, move quickly and treat retention as recruitment. With 79% of technical professionals planning to switch employers in 2026 according to Rise Technical, slow, clunky hiring loses good people to faster rivals. A tight process and a clear reason to stay matter as much as the offer itself.
When your plant hiring brief widens, you need reach and speed. We search a database of 15 million candidates and rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds, so you see people who match the blended skills the role now demands, not just the job title. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. If you're hiring against rising build rates, tell us the brief today and we'll surface your shortlist.
