The pressure is real, and it is growing. 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. That is output that never reaches a customer, and it is a daily problem for operations teams trying to keep lines moving.
Recruitment sits near the top of the worry list. Manufacturers name skills shortages (75%), recruitment (36%) and talent retention (32%) as their top barriers to growth in Barclays Corporate's 2024 analysis of the skills shortage in UK manufacturing. When three of your biggest blockers are all about people, hiring well stops being a support function and becomes a growth strategy.
Sustainability has moved from a nice-to-have to a named skills gap. Some 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list per the Institution of Engineering and Technology's 2025 skills statistics. Carbon reporting sits right inside that gap: the people who can measure emissions, model reductions and file compliant data are in short supply.
Automation and digitalisation are reshaping what factories need. 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 in Make UK's 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap report. Carbon reporting blends both: data fluency plus the judgement to turn numbers into decisions.
Many firms are responding from within. Some 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce, specifically for redeployment as a result of automation and digitalisation, a figure that rises for firms with more than 1,000 employees according to the Make UK Executive Survey 2026. Upskilling and hiring work best together: you grow your own specialists while recruiting for the skills you cannot build fast enough.
Start by writing the role for the factory you are becoming, not the one you ran five years ago. A carbon reporting hire is part analyst, part engineer and part communicator, so describe the real work: which emissions scopes they will cover, which systems they will pull data from and who they will report to. Clear scope attracts the right people and filters out the rest.
Move quickly once you find someone good. With 76% of engineering employers struggling to recruit for key roles per the IET's 2025 skills statistics, strong applicants rarely wait around. Keep your process short, give clear feedback and book interviews fast. Speed is not a shortcut here; it is a sign of respect that wins you the hire.
Pair every external hire with an internal plan. Since 40% of manufacturers are already upskilling for redeployment in the Make UK Executive Survey 2026, ask which parts of the carbon reporting job an existing team member could grow into. Hiring one specialist to lead and training others around them spreads the skill and protects you from a single point of failure.
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