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The wider UK labour market is best described as 'low hire, low fire': recruitment has weakened and vacancies have dropped below pre-pandemic levels, even though redundancies have risen only slightly the Low Pay Commission's 2025 report. That caution shapes how manufacturers plan every hire.
Engineering feels it sharply at the start of the career ladder. Entry-level hiring in engineering has fallen to minus 19%, while senior hiring sits at minus 10%, a nine-percentage-point gap a GOV.UK snapshot of entry-level hiring. In plain terms, firms are holding back on juniors faster than on experienced people, which thins the pipeline of future craftspeople.
There are bright spots. The largest volume increase in vacancies from August to October 2025 came in professional, scientific and technical activities, up by 5,000 ONS vacancy figures for November 2025. Demand for specialist, hard-to-source skills is holding up even while general hiring stays cautious.
Composites craft covers hand and machine lamination, resin infusion, autoclave and oven curing, bonding, trimming and finishing, plus inspection and repair. These are skilled, hands-on trades that sit close to the product. They matter because the sectors buying composites are growing.
Defence is a clear driver. Surveyed recruitment across the defence sector grew by 17.8% in 2022 GOV.UK's defence economic contribution release, and MOD spending with industry supported 272,000 direct jobs in 2023/24, an 11% rise on the previous year MOD supported employment estimates. Much of that work depends on advanced materials and the people who shape them.
The supply side is the pressure point. For engineering, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, which points to low reliance on international recruitment a GOV.UK review of professionals in engineering. If you need composites skills, you are largely competing for people already trained in the UK, so growing your own matters more each year.
Start by writing the role around the work, not the job title. List the specific processes, materials and tolerances your team uses. A laminator who thrives on wind turbine blades is not automatically the right fit for tight aerospace bonding, so be precise about what a good day looks like.
Build your own pipeline rather than waiting for finished experts to appear. Apprenticeships are proving their worth elsewhere: in AI roles they have risen from 3% of hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 the DSIT AI Labour Market Survey 2025. The same logic applies to composites, where much of the craft is learned on the bench. This also protects you against the shrinking junior pipeline, given entry-level engineering hiring has fallen to minus 19% the GOV.UK entry-level snapshot.
Move quickly on the people you want. In a low-hire market, the strongest candidates still get snapped up, and demand for specialist skills stays firm per ONS vacancy data. Test practical skill early, keep your process short, and give a clear picture of progression from trainee to lead hand.
When you know the exact craft you need, we help you find it fast. We search a database of 15 million candidates, rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds, and manage recruitment end to end so your team stays on the shop floor rather than in the applicant tracking system. 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. Tell us the composites skills you need today and we will start matching.
