Hiring in manufacturing is tight, and it's getting tighter as grid work pulls in more technical people. Skills shortages are the sector's number one barrier to growth, named by 75% of manufacturers, with recruitment cited by 36% and talent retention by 32% Barclays Corporate's 2024 skills shortage study. That pressure now has a price tag.
In 2025 there were 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies in UK manufacturing, costing the economy £6bn in lost output every year Make UK's Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report 2025. Engineering employers feel it most sharply: 76% struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list the Institution of Engineering and Technology's 2025 skills figures. As grid equipment orders climb, those same skills are in even higher demand.
The hiring brief is widening because the work itself is changing. 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's 2030 Skills: Closing the Gap report. Grid equipment production sits right in this mix, blending electrical, mechanical and digital know-how.
Government forecasting backs this up. Occupations in digital, adult social care, construction and engineering have the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030 Skills England's assessment of priority skills to 2030. Digital, engineering and construction occupations also appear most commonly among priority roles, many already experiencing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly the Skills England annual skills report 2026.
Retention makes the picture harder still. 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026, according to a survey of over 500 employers and 1,000 candidates Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, carried by Engineering and Technology Jobs. And the pipeline is thin at the start: in engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap a GOV.UK snapshot of entry-level hiring.
Start by writing the brief around skills, not just job titles. With automation and digitalisation reshaping roles Make UK's 2030 Skills report, a grid equipment vacancy often needs a blend of electrical, mechanical and digital capability that a single legacy title won't capture. Describe the work, the systems and the outcomes you need, then match people to that.
Move quickly, because the best technical people are already being approached. With 79% planning to move in 2026 Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, a slow process loses good people before you reach an offer. Keep stages short, give clear feedback and book interviews fast.
Widen your search beyond the obvious talent pool. Engineering, digital and construction skills overlap with grid equipment work, and candidates from those areas can fill gaps that pure manufacturing searches miss as the Skills England annual skills report 2026 sets out.
We search a database of 15 million candidates to find the technical, engineering and plant people this widening brief demands, and we run the process end to end: searching, shortlisting, contacting people and booking interviews. 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 grid equipment demand is stretching your team, tell us the brief and we'll start the search today.
