In 2004, the estimated total employment in engineering was approximately 1.4 million, which is expected to fall to approximately 1.3 million by 2014. It is also projected that the industry will require substantial replacement demand over the next decade, with 230 thousand additional jobs. Trends in employment have been influenced by:

• changes in technology
• increased quality requirements
• the need to reduce costs
• changes in working practices (such as team and cell working)
• the move to batch production rather than mass production particularly in the automotive and electronics industries

Although employment in engineering has been in decline in the UK for several decades and despite falling internal competitiveness and some companies scaling back their UK operations and moving abroad, 2004 saw growth in the sector. Employment of professional engineers and higher level technicians has been steadily increasing while employment in craft and operator/assembler occupations has decreased.

In 2003, an estimated 2.5 million workers in the UK used some engineering skills in their day-to-day work. A noticeable trend in employment has been a shift in the occupational balance towards higher level skills and education requirements and this is expected to continue in the future.

Future recruitment difficulties have and will continue to impact on businesses resulting in:

• increased staff workloads
• difficulties in meeting customer service objectives
• loss of orders
• increased operating costs 

Skills gaps are most likely to affect operating costs or create difficulties in meeting customer service objectives reducing the productivity and competitiveness of establishments.

Source: Working Futures 2006, SEMTA 2006, Spilsbury Research/SEMTA 2004 and SEMTA 2003

For future replacement demands in engineering see Occupations