There’s a skills shortage, nobody wants to work anymore, and good people are getting harder and harder to find.
Sound familiar?
If you’re responsible for recruitment in manufacturing, you’ve probably heard at least one of those statements recently. You might have even said them yourself!
When you’ve got machines sitting idle, production targets to hit and an existing team picking up the slack, the last thing you need is another week of interviews that go nowhere.
But, is there really nobody out there who can do the job, or is something stopping the right people from wanting it?
While the manufacturing skills shortage is a genuine problem, it isn’t the only reason businesses struggle to recruit.
It might be the salary, the shifts, and sometimes it can be the recruitment process itself. It could also be a combination of things that nobody’d stopped to look at. So that’s what we’re going to do…
Is There Really A Skills Shortage In The UK?
Yes. And it isn’t something businesses have suddenly started dealing with, it’s been going on for a while.
According to the UK Government’s Employer Skills Survey in 2024, 34% of manufacturing vacancies were difficult to fill because applicants lacked the right skills, qualifications or experience. That’s compared with 27% across the wider UK economy.
More recently, MAKE UK reported in November 2026, that there were around 48,000 unfilled manufacturing vacancies across the country.
So, when businesses tell us they’re struggling to recruit experienced CNC machinists, welders, press brakes setters, or other skilled workers, we’re not going to pretend those challenges don’t exist.
But there is another side to this story…
The Office for National Statistics reported that total UK vacancies fell to approximately 691,000 between July and September 2026.
In other words, there are fewer vacancies across the wider economy, but employers can still struggle to fill particular manufacturing roles.
Fewer vacancies don’t automatically mean more suitable candidates for every job.
Are Your Salary Expectations Putting Candidates Off?
Let’s start with one of the conversations that nobody particularly enjoys having. Money.
We know manufacturing businesses are under pressure. Energy bills, machine costs, materials, employment costs and everything else involved in keeping a business running aren’t getting any easier to manage.
So, of course, employers need to keep an eye on their wage bills.
There’s a difference between managing costs and expecting someone to bring five different skills to the table for a salary that doesn’t reflect them.
Imagine if you’re looking for an experienced machine operator who can set, programme, read technical drawings, carry out quality checks and jump on to another machine when needed. That’s a pretty useful person to have on the shop floor!
Now imagine offering them the same money as a role that requires considerably less eperience. You’re probably going to struggle to attract the person you’re looking for.
And before anyone says it, yes, candidates need realistic salary expectations too!
Someone asking for a substantial salary increase needs to demonstrate the experience, skills and value behind that figure. It works both ways.
However, if your vacancy has been open for weeks and every suitable candidate wants more money than you’re offering, it’s worth asking whether the salary is competitive in your area.
Are You Looking For the Perfect Candidate Instead Of The Right One?
You know the dream. Someone with ten years of experience, every qualification under the sun, knowledge of your exact machinery and the ability to walk through the door on Monday morning and crack straight on.
Lovely if you can find them!
But what happens when that person doesn’t exist, or isn’t interested in leaving their current employer?
This is one of the biggest manufacturing recruitment challenges we see businesses needing to think about. Not every requirement on a job description carries the same weight.
Some skills are essential. If someone needs a particular qualification to work safely or legally, that’s not negotiable. But other things might be trainable.
For example, could an experienced CNC Setter learn a different machine control? Could someone with a strong fabrication background develop skills on a particular piece of equipment?
If the answer is yes, you might have more options than you think.
That doesn’t mean lowering the standards, or taking someone on who can’t do the job. It just means separating the skills someone must already have from those they could reasonably learn.
That can be the difference between a vacancy sitting open for months and finding someone who could become a valuable member of your team.
Your Competitors Aren’t Always Other Manufacturing Businesses
Now, you’re not just competing against manufacturing and engineering companies within a 5 mile radius of you.
You’re competing with every employer offering someone a better reason to leave their current job. That could mean more money, of course. But it could also mean better working hours, a shorter commute, a four day working week, opportunities to develop or simply a workplace where people feel appreciated.
Think about it. If someone has spent years working shifts and another employer offers them similar money for straight days, that could be enough to make them consider moving.
Likewise, if a skilled worker feels they’ve reached a dead end in their current role, an opportunity to learn something new might catch their attention.
Recent Skills England research also highlights competition for engineering and technical skills across different industries. So, if you’re struggling to attract candidates, don’t just look at what other businesses are paying.
Look at the whole opportunity you’re offering.
Would you leave a job you were comfortable in for it? If not, why would someone else?
Are You Taking Too Long To Make Recruitment Decisions?
You’ve found someone with the right experience. They’ve interviewed well, and they’re interested in the position and the hiring manger likes them…Brilliant!
Then you go quiet.
Someone’s on holiday, another manager needs to meet them, the salary needs signing off, nobody’s quite sure who’s making the final decision. Meanwhile, your candidate you like is still looking for work.
We understand that recruitment decisions matter, particularly when you’re hiring for a skilled or senior manufacturing position. You want to make sure you’re getting the right person…
But a lengthy process doesn’t automatically mean a better decision. Sometimes it simply means losing someone who could have been a great fit.
Before you advertise your position, make sure everyone involved knows what the role requires, what salary you can offer and who has the authority to make the final decision.
Then keep candidates updated!
Even if you need a little more time, a quick conversation is better than leaving someone wondering what’s happening.
Are You Waiting Until The Vacancy Becomes A Problem?
We know how quickly things can change in manufacturing. An unexpected order comes in, production volumes increase, someone hands in their notice, another employee goes off sick.
Suddenly, the staffing plan you had last week doesn’t look quite so useful. You can’t predict everything, and we’re certainly not suggesting otherwise, however, some recruitment needs are easier to anticipate than others.
If you know certain months are always busy, particular departments regularly need extra support, or you’ve got employees approaching retirement, why wait until you’re already under pressure?
This is particularly important when recruiting skilled manufacturing staff.
Finding an experienced CNC machinist or Press Brake Setter isn’t necessarily something you can do overnight.
And if you leave it until you’re desperate, you’ve got less time to explore your options.
That’s why we encourage businesses to have recruitment conversations before they need someone standing at a machine on Monday morning.
You don’t need an exact headcount, you might not even have a confirmed vacancy. But if we understand what could be coming, we can start building a picture of the people and skills you might need.
A little forward planning won’t prevent every staffing problem, but it can make the unexpected ones easier to manage.
Are You Giving People A Reason To Stay?
Finding someone is one thing, keeping them is another.
You can put plenty of time, effort, and money into recruiting someone, only to find yourself advertising the same vacancy a few months later.
And while there will always be circumstances outside an employer’s control, it’s worth looking at why people are leaving.
Did the role match what they were told during the interview?
Did they receive a proper induction?
Has someone shown them the ropes, or were they left and expected to know everything from day one?
Were the shifts, responsibilities and opportunities for progression explained properly?
These things matter.
If someone joins a business expecting one thing and experiences something completely different, they’re unlikely to feel particularly positive about staying.
And when an employee leaves, the impact doesn’t stop with another empty position. You’ve got to recruit again, train someone new and potentially ask your existing team to cover the gap in the meantime.
That’s why we believe recruitment shouldn’t end the moment someone starts their first shift. The relationship between the employer, employee, and recruitment agency still matters afterwards.
How Can You Improve Your Recruitment?
If you’re struggling to recruit manufacturing staff, start by looking at what’s happening with your current vacancies.
Not just how many applications you’re getting, but why those applications aren’t turning into successful hires.
Ask yourself:
- Is the salary competitive? Compare it with what similar roles are offering locally.
- Are all the requirements essential? Decide which skills candidates need from day one and which you could develop.
- Is the opportunity attractive? Think about shifts, progression, working conditions and what makes your business worth joining.
- Are decisions taking too long? Make sure the right people are available to interview and provide feedback.
- Could you plan further ahead? Identifying recurring staffing pressures before they affect production.
- Are you retaining the people you recruit? Look at onboarding, communication and the reasons employees leave.
You might discover that the problem isn’t what you originally thought.
And that’s a much better starting point than simply advertising the same vacancy again and hoping for a different result.
Why Local Knowledge About Manufacturing In The West Midlands Matters
There’s a lot of manufacturing and engineering experience across the West Midlands and Black Country. But finding the right people isn’t always as simple as putting an advert online and waiting for the applications to come flooding through.
Some might have exactly the skills you’re looking for but isn’t actively searching for a new job. Another candidate might be interested in moving, but only for the right shifts or salary. And sometimes the person you need is someone a recruitment agency like us has already spoken to, long before your vacancy becomes available.
That’s where understanding both the local job market and the businesses you’re recruiting for makes a difference. At Oliver Rae, we spend our time speaking to manufacturing and engineering businesses, visiting sites and getting to know the people behind the job titles.
There’s a difference between knowing that a company needs a Welder and understanding the type of welding they do, the experience they need and what working there actually involves. The more we understand, the better the conversations we can have with candidates.
And when a vacancy proves difficult to fill, we’re not afraid to have an honest conversation about the why. Sometimes that means discussing salary expectations, sometimes it means reviewing the job requirements, and other times, it means taking a different approach to finding the right person.
We can’t promise that every vacancy is straightforward, but we can promise to treat it as more than another job description sitting on the desk.
It’s not always about the lack of people. The manufacturing skills shortage is real. But that doesn’t mean every difficult vacancy comes down to a shortage of candidates. Sometimes the right people are out there, but the opportunity just isn’t attracting them. Sometimes businesses need to rethink what they’re asking for. And sometimes the recruitment process itself is making an already difficult job even harder.
The important thing is understanding what’s getting in the way before you spend another few weeks doing exactly the same thing.
We work with manufacturing and engineering companies across the West Midlands to recruit permanent, temporary and temp-to-perm staff.
And if you’ve got a vacancy that’s been sitting open for longer than you’d like, we’d be happy to have a conversation about it. No promises of magic solutions, no pretending we’ve got a warehouse full of skilled workers waiting for a phone call. Just a conversation about what you’re looking for, what’s been happening so far and what we might be able to do differently.