The wider hiring market is cooling. Early estimates for May to July 2026 suggest a decrease of 6,000 (0.8%) vacancies to 707,000 across the UK compared with February to April 2026, according to ONS vacancy data for August 2026. A softer market does not mean easy hiring, though. For depots and manufacturers that feed them, the shortage of skilled people is the real pressure point.
The evidence is clear on where the strain sits. Manufacturers name skills shortages (75%), recruitment (36%) and talent retention (32%) as their top barriers to growth, according to Barclays Corporate's research on the UK manufacturing skills shortage. When finding and keeping people is this hard, the smart move is to make more of the people you already have.
Automation is rewriting the warehouse manager role. Six in ten (59%) manufacturers cited automation and half (50%) cited wider digitalisation as trends changing jobs and skills needs, and 74% expect demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to increase by 2030, according to Make UK's 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap report. Managing a depot now means managing systems, data and people together.
So firms are growing their own. Forty per cent (40%) of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce, specifically for redeployment as a result of automation and digitalisation, and that figure rises for firms with more than 1,000 employees, according to the Make UK Executive Survey 2026. For a warehouse manager who knows the floor, the stock and the team, new technical skills turn experience into leadership that is hard to replace.
Start by splitting the job into the parts you can teach and the parts you need on day one. With 74% of manufacturers expecting demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to rise by 2030, according to Make UK's 2030 Skills research, hire for judgement, problem-solving and the ability to learn. Systems can be trained. A clear thinker who stays calm under pressure is harder to find.
Retention and recruitment are two sides of the same coin. When talent retention is a barrier for 32% of manufacturers, according to Barclays Corporate, every manager you grow and keep is one less hard search. But growth, cover and new sites still mean you need to hire from outside, and that is where speed and reach matter.
When you do need to hire a warehouse manager from outside, we help you move fast. 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 are ready to fill a role, start matching today.
