The wider labour market is quiet. Early estimates for April to June 2026 put total vacancies at 712,000, down 7,000 on the previous quarter, with decreases in 10 of the 18 sectors ONS - Vacancies and jobs in the UK. The Low Pay Commission describes the picture as 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment but only slight rises in redundancies Low Pay Commission Report 2025, GOV.UK.
Against that backdrop, automation is one of the clear opportunities. The UK has been slow to adopt industrial robots, using only 101 per 10,000 workers in 2020, which substantially lags international peers Smart Machines Strategy 2035 - GOV.UK. Food and drink lines, where speed, hygiene and consistency matter, are a practical place to close that gap, and that is pulling demand for automation talent along with it.
The biggest shift is inward. Some 40% of manufacturers plan 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 Make UK Executive Survey 2026. So many food and drink employers are training current staff onto robotics, controls and line-monitoring work rather than only hiring from outside.
Specialist skills still command demand even in a cautious market. Employers report hotspots for AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security, all of which sit behind a modern automated line Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026). Entry routes are changing too: apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025, a useful signal for how automation-adjacent teams are building talent GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report.
Start with the roles you can grow. With 40% of manufacturers upskilling for redeployment Make UK Executive Survey 2026, map which line operators and maintenance engineers can move into controls, robotics or data roles, then hire externally for the gaps that upskilling cannot fill fast enough.
Widen the entry routes. The rise of apprenticeships in AI hiring GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report shows there is real appetite to build skills rather than only buy them. And move quickly on specialist candidates: demand for AI, data and cyber skills is holding up Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026), so a slow process risks losing the exact people who make automation projects work.
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