The gap is wide and it's costing real money. In 2025 there were 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies in UK manufacturing, costing the economy £6bn in lost output every year Make UK – Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report 2025. Employers feel it most at the top of the funnel: skills shortages (75%) are the leading barrier to growth, ahead of recruitment (36%) and talent retention (32%) Barclays Corporate – Skills shortage in UK Manufacturing.
The squeeze reaches the whole engineering base too. 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). When three in four firms can't find the people they need, buying talent from the open market stops being a reliable plan. Building it does.
Automation is the force redrawing the job map. Six in ten (59%) manufacturers cite automation and half (50%) cite wider digitalisation as the trends changing jobs and skills needs, and 74% expect demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to increase by 2030 Make UK – 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap. The work is shifting from manual tasks to programming, maintaining and reasoning about machines.
Yet adoption is still early, and skills are the brake. Over 50% of manufacturers cite skills shortages as the main barrier to AI adoption, and only 2% say AI is widely embedded across their operations The Manufacturer / Make UK – AI, Skills and the Future of UK Manufacturing. There's headroom to grow into. The UK ranks just 24th in global robotics density, and targeted innovation and digital investment could add £150 billion to the UK's GDP by 2035 Making it Smarter: Global Lessons for Accelerating Automation and Digital Adoption in UK Manufacturing - Make UK.
Demand is pointing one way. Occupations in digital, adult social care, construction and engineering have the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030 GOV.UK - Assessment of priority skills to 2030 (Skills England). Digital, engineering and construction occupations appear most commonly among priority occupations, many already experiencing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly GOV.UK - Skills England annual skills report 2026. These are exactly the roles automation creates.
Start by growing your own. Apprenticeships give you a direct route to the technicians, controls engineers and robotics maintainers the open market can't supply, and they build loyalty while they build skill. Many employers are already combining this with retraining: 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce, specifically for redeployment as a result of automation and digitalisation, and that figure increases for firms with more than 1,000 employees Make UK Executive Survey 2026.
Hire for the ability to learn, not just today's tool. With 74% of manufacturers expecting demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to rise by 2030 Make UK – 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap, the people who adapt as machines change matter more than a single certificate. Set an apprentice pathway: pair each new starter with an experienced mentor, map a clear route to a full technician role, and track progress against the robotics and digital skills you're actually deploying.
The UK lags on robotics for now, using only 101 robots per 10,000 workers in 2020 Smart Machines Strategy 2035 - GOV.UK. Closing that gap is a hiring and training challenge first, and a technology one second.
Finding entry-level apprentices and skilled engineers takes reach and speed, and that's where we help. We search 15 million candidates to surface people who match your automation roles, rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds, contact matched candidates in under a minute and can book an interview in under three minutes. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Ready to build your automation team? Start your shortlist today with Reed.ai.
