Demand for engineers is strong, and it's forecast to stay that way. Skills England found that occupations in digital, adult social care, construction and engineering have the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030 GOV.UK - Assessment of priority skills to 2030 (Skills England). That trend is not a blip. The same body's 2026 report says digital, engineering and construction occupations appear most commonly among priority occupations, many already experiencing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly GOV.UK - Skills England annual skills report 2026.
The scale is worth sitting with. Skills England projects that demand for key occupations will grow by nearly 25% in the next decade, with 1.8 million new priority jobs expected by 2035 GOV.UK - Landmark report sets out action to address key skills gaps (Skills England). So when a major programme like HS2 keeps hiring on its remaining civil engineering contracts, it's competing for people in one of the tightest parts of the labour market.
The gap is real and it's being felt now. The Institution of Engineering and Technology reports that 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). For civil engineering contracts, that means the roles that keep a build moving, from design and structures to geotechnical and sustainability specialists, are exactly the ones in shortest supply.
Retention makes it harder still. Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, which surveyed over 500 employers and 1,000 candidates, found that 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026 Engineering and Technology Jobs (IET) / Rise Technical. So you're not only hiring into a shortage, you're hiring into a market where the people you want are open to moving, and so are the ones you already have.
Move quickly and keep the process clear. When most technical professionals are open to a move Engineering and Technology Jobs (IET) / Rise Technical, a slow, vague process loses good people to a faster offer. Get to a first conversation within days, not weeks, and be honest about the contract, the site and the scope from the start.
Widen the search and be specific about skills. With technical and specialist sustainability skills the hardest to find Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), write role requirements around the outcomes you need rather than a rigid list of past job titles. That opens the door to people from adjacent infrastructure and construction work who can do the job. Then treat every interview as a two-way sell: strong people are choosing you as much as you're choosing them.
This is where we help. We search a database of 15 million candidates to find engineers who match your civil engineering contract, and we manage the process end to end so your team can stay on the build. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. If HS2's reset hasn't stopped your hiring either, start a search with Reed.ai today and see who we surface.
