UK manufacturing is short of people, and automotive sits right in the middle of that gap. 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. That's a lot of work waiting for the right hands.
Employers feel it keenly. Manufacturers name skills shortages (75%), recruitment (36%) and talent retention (32%) as their top barriers to growth Barclays Corporate – Skills shortage in UK Manufacturing. Battery pack assembly, a new and growing part of vehicle production, lands on top of an already stretched labour market.
The good news? Government planning points demand straight at the skills this work needs. Occupations in digital, adult social care, construction and engineering show the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030 GOV.UK - Assessment of priority skills to 2030 (Skills England). Engineering is one of the clearest opportunities on the board.
Electrification changes what a vehicle job looks like. Six in ten (59%) manufacturers cite automation and half (50%) cite wider digitalisation as 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. Battery pack assembly blends hands-on build work with data, process control and problem solving.
Firms are responding by growing their own talent. 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce 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. Assembly operatives, quality technicians and process engineers are all in the mix.
Digital and engineering 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. For anyone weighing up a move into automotive, battery work is where demand is heading.
Start by widening the entry gate. In engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK. If you only chase experienced people, you compete for the smallest pool. Hiring for aptitude and training on the pack line opens up far more of the market.
Then hire for the mix the work actually needs. Battery assembly rewards people who can follow a safe, precise process and read data when something drifts. Score people on attention to detail, safety discipline and willingness to learn, not just a tick-list of past job titles. Many of your strongest hires will come from adjacent manufacturing and engineering backgrounds.
When demand outpaces supply, speed and reach decide who you hire. We search a database of 15 million candidates to surface people with the engineering, process and hands-on skills battery assembly needs, then rank a shortlist and handle the steps end to end. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell Reed.ai about your battery assembly roles today and see your shortlist.
