Manufacturing is hiring, but it's hiring against a stubborn gap. In 2025 there were 55,000 unfilled long-term vacancies in UK manufacturing, costing the economy £6bn in lost output every year, according to Make UK's Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report 2025. That's a lot of work waiting for the right people.
Skills shortages sit at the top of the list of concerns. Barclays Corporate's research on the manufacturing skills shortage found that manufacturers name skills shortages (75%), recruitment (36%) and talent retention (32%) as their top barriers to growth. When new fields like printed electronics arrive, they land on top of an already tight labour market.
There's a clear opportunity here too. Make UK's 'Making it Smarter' report notes the UK ranks just 24th in global robotics density, and that targeted innovation and digital investment could add £150 billion to the UK's GDP by 2035. Printed electronics is exactly the kind of innovation that turns that potential into jobs.
Printed electronics sits where advanced materials meet digital production, so the roles it creates blend practical line work with digital know-how. That shift is already reshaping the wider sector. Make UK's 2030 Skills report found six in ten (59%) manufacturers cite automation and half (50%) cite wider digitalisation as trends changing jobs and skills needs.
The type of skill in demand is changing, not just the volume. The same Make UK 2030 Skills report found 74% expect demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to increase by 2030. For printed electronics, that means process operators who can read data, troubleshoot digital equipment and adapt as production methods evolve.
Engineering and digital occupations are set to grow fastest. Skills England's assessment of priority skills to 2030 identifies Digital, Adult Social Care, Construction and Engineering as the occupations with the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030. Printed electronics production roles pull directly from that engineering and digital talent pool.
Many firms plan to build these skills from within. Make UK's Executive Survey 2026 found 40% of manufacturers are looking to upskill their existing workforce, specifically for redeployment as a result of automation and digitalisation, with that figure rising for firms with more than 1,000 employees.
Start with the work, not the job title. Printed electronics roles are new enough that off-the-shelf descriptions won't exist, so define the tasks, the equipment and the day-to-day decisions first. That clarity helps you spot transferable talent from adjacent lines and fields.
Hire for the skills that travel. With 74% of manufacturers expecting demand for cognitive and meta-cognitive skills to rise by 2030, per Make UK's 2030 Skills report, it pays to value problem-solving and adaptability alongside hands-on experience. Those qualities carry someone through fast-changing production methods.
Pair hiring with upskilling. Since 40% of manufacturers plan to upskill and redeploy existing staff for automation and digitalisation, as Make UK's Executive Survey 2026 shows, your best hire may already be on site. Build a plan that mixes external hires with internal moves, and move quickly when the right person appears.
Speed matters most in a tight market. With 55,000 long-term vacancies unfilled across the sector, noted by Make UK's Industrial Strategy Skills Commission Report 2025, a slow process loses good people to faster competitors. Keep steps short, give clear feedback and keep people warm throughout.
We built our recruitment agent to make hiring for new and hard-to-fill manufacturing roles faster and simpler. We search a database of 15 million candidates to surface people with the engineering, digital and problem-solving skills these production roles need, then rank a shortlist and manage the process end to end. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell Reed.ai about your printed electronics roles and we'll start building your shortlist today.
