Defence is one of the strongest job engines in the UK right now. MOD expenditure with industry supported a total of 272,000 direct jobs in 2023/24, an increase of 11% compared to the previous financial year, according to the MOD supported employment estimates for 2023/24 on GOV.UK. That followed a year where the total number of MOD-supported UK jobs reached 239,000 in 2022/23, an increase of 6% on the previous financial year, as reported in the MOD employment estimates for 2022/23.
Investment keeps feeding that growth. 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, as set out in a GOV.UK announcement on the defence dividend. The hiring picture is already active too: the defence sector continued to be an attractive employer, with surveyed recruitment growing by 17.8% in 2022, according to GOV.UK data on the sector's economic contribution.
So the demand is real and rising. The harder question for employers is who, exactly, they need, and shipbuilding programmes are reshaping that answer.
A modern vessel is part structure, part software and part power plant, so a single programme now spans naval architecture, electrical and systems engineering, welding and fabrication, digital integration and sustainability work. That breadth runs straight into a tight market. 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list, according to the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
The shortage is building for the long term. Occupations in Digital, Adult Social Care, Construction and Engineering have the greatest additional employment demand between 2025 and 2030, as identified in Skills England's assessment of priority skills to 2030. That picture holds in the latest view too: digital, engineering and construction occupations appear most commonly among priority occupations, many already experiencing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly, according to the Skills England annual skills report 2026.
There is a warning sign at the start of the pipeline. In Engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap, according to a GOV.UK snapshot of entry-level hiring. If programmes need a wider mix of skills over decades, the thin entry-level intake is a problem worth fixing now.
Start by mapping the whole brief, not a single job title. A shipbuilding programme needs structural, electrical, systems and sustainability skills together, so plan the roles as a connected team and sequence the hires to match each build phase.
Build your own pipeline rather than fishing in the same pool. Most employers draw on domestic talent: for the Engineering profession, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, indicating low reliance on international recruitment, according to a GOV.UK review of professionals in IT and engineering. Apprenticeships and early-careers routes matter here, especially given the entry-level gap.
The common thread is speed with rigour. When specialist skills are scarce, the employer who shortlists accurately and moves first tends to win the hire.
That is where we help. We search 15 million candidates to surface a ranked shortlist in under 30 seconds, contact matched people in under 1 minute and book an interview in under 3 minutes, so you can move fast on the scarce engineering skills a shipbuilding programme depends on. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. If you are building a programme team across engineering disciplines, Reed.ai can help you find the right people.
