Defence is one of the UK's most active employers, and the numbers keep moving in one direction. MOD expenditure with industry supported a total of 272,000 direct jobs in 2023/24, an increase of 11% on the previous financial year MOD supported employment estimates for 2023/24. That builds on a run of growth: the total number of MOD-supported UK jobs reached 239,000 in 2022/23, up 6% on the year before the MOD's 2022/23 employment estimates.
Fresh money is landing too. More than 1,700 new jobs are being created across the UK defence sector following at least £1.4 billion in foreign direct investment committed since July 2024 the Government's defence dividend announcement. And the sector is pulling people in faster than it was: surveyed recruitment in defence grew by 17.8% in 2022 GOV.UK figures on the defence sector's economic contribution. When investment rises, someone has to build the product, and that is where production engineering comes in.
Production engineering sits at the join between design and delivery: it makes manufacturing lines work, keeps quality high and gets volume out of the door. Demand for this kind of skill is set to climb. 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. Engineering also appears most commonly among the priority occupations expected to keep growing strongly the Skills England annual skills report 2026.
The problem is supply. 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist skills topping the list the Institution of Engineering and Technology. The pipeline looks thin at the start, too: 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. Fewer juniors coming through today means fewer experienced production engineers tomorrow.
Retention adds pressure. 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026 recruitment firm Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report. For defence employers, that mix of rising demand, a shrinking junior intake and a mobile workforce makes production engineering one of the hardest, and most important, roles to fill.
Start by moving quickly. When 79% of technical professionals say they plan to switch employers in 2026 Rise Technical's Insights Report, the best people are open to a conversation but rarely for long. A slow process loses them. Define the role tightly, agree the decision-makers up front and keep the gap between first contact and an offer as short as you can.
Second, widen the pool. With 76% of engineering employers struggling to recruit the IET, you cannot rely on people who already hold a defence clearance or a near-identical job title. Look across advanced manufacturing, automotive and aerospace for transferable production skills, then plan for security clearance and sector training as part of onboarding rather than a barrier to applying.
Third, build your own pipeline. The entry-level gap in Engineering, hiring at -19% against -10% for senior roles the GOV.UK snapshot, is a warning. Apprenticeships, graduate schemes and structured progression give you production engineers who understand your lines from the ground up, and they are easier to retain than people you have to buy in at a premium.
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