Engineering news
Demand for engineers is predicted to grow faster than other occupations, said EngineeringUK as it published Engineering skills needs – now and into the future today (24 May).
The report, produced by labour analytics firm Lightcast, found there were approximately 6.1m engineering jobs (including tech roles) across all industries in 2021, representing 19% of all jobs in the UK. In the past year, recruitment activity for engineering roles accounted for a quarter of all job postings in the UK, suggesting that the skills shortage in engineering is greater than in other areas, or that employers are hiring for future growth.
With engineers playing a central role in the development of solutions to help fight climate change, the report found that engineering job ads mentioning green skills increased by nearly half (48%) over the last five years, to 212,000 postings in 2021-22. Green roles appear across a wide range of sectors, showing that the application of these skills is far-reaching and important to the economy.
The Lightcast report also features a ‘skills snapshot’ for 13 engineering fields, covering the specialist and software skills most sought after by recruiting employers, as well as the top occupations within each group and the median salaries. For mechanical engineers, the top two software skills were the SolidWorks and AutoCAD programs.
“Given the soaring demand for engineers across all sectors, it’s essential that the UK has a robust plan and funding in place to train the future workforce, bringing more young people from all backgrounds into engineering and technology, alongside reskilling the current workforce,” said Dr Hilary Leevers, chief executive of EngineeringUK.
“With the growth in green skills, and the central role engineers and technicians play in transitioning to a green economy and addressing climate change, ensuring that the sector has the skilled workforce needed to thrive is more urgent than ever.”
The growing demand for engineers is also reflected in salaries on offer, the EngineeringUK announcement said. The average advertised salary in engineering (£38,600) was almost 30% higher than the average salary for all occupations (£30,000).
The full report and accompanying discussion paper are available to download on the EngineeringUK website.
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Content published by Professional Engineering does not necessarily represent the views of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.