The engineering shortage investigated – which UK locations and engineering roles are seeing the largest shortages

New research has revealed the areas of labour shortage in the UK engineering market. There are a considerable amount of factors that contribute to the high demand across the UK.

Taylor Studwelding, a leading manufacturer of stud welding machines and equipment, have investigated which engineering roles in the UK are in the highest demand.

The results showed the highest concentration of demand is in the Greater London region of the UK. This region found the largest shortage of engineers with an average of 59,210 vacancies across Indeed and Reed at the start of April 2022. Development Engineers are in the shortest supply with 9,957 vacancies followed closely by Technical Engineer roles that have 8,945 vacancies.

Greater London is home to a number of large engineering businesses, making it the centre for aspiring engineers. A large amount of the average 59,210 vacancies are concentrated in the Development Engineer sector. The Development Engineer sector has 9,957 career opportunities live across the Greater London area.

Transport for London is one of the largest providers of careers in this area, with 90 vacancies on Indeed at the start of April 2022.

Design and Development is the sector that has taken the biggest hit across the UK. This division of engineering is currently recruiting for 34,258 roles. These vacancies range from Research and Development Engineers to Clinical Engineers.

Andy Gillings, Sales Area Manager at Taylor Studwelding, said: “The high demand in the Greater London area has seen the need for qualified Development Engineers increase. With a high density of businesses in Greater London, it is expected that the need will continue to increase over time.”

“The current shortage is influenced by the lack of graduate and junior positions that are available. Our research found that there is just one graduate engineering role for every 185 engineering vacancies across the UK. Businesses are wanting to recruit developed engineers instead of training graduates. With skilled staff in short supply, now is the time to act. Young people are encouraged to take up apprenticeships and businesses are rewarded with a bursary when taking part in an apprenticeship scheme.”

The roles that are showing the biggest demand across the UK are; Development Engineers, Technical Engineers and Software Engineers. These three roles are unique in their specialist fields, however they all require a knowledge of software and computer sciences.

The biggest gap in the engineering career market is the role of Development Engineer. Development engineers are responsible for creating and designing new products and software. Ranging from software for a new Iphone or car components. This category of engineer is essential with an average of 22,603 openings on Indeed and Reed at the start of April 2022.

Technical and Software Engineers develop code and software for anything from computer games to bespoke business software. These are the second and third largest gaps in the market. On average, there are 39,281 vacancies, for these two divisions, on Indeed and Reed at the start of April 2022.

Development, Technical and Software Engineers are in short supply due to the ever changing technology landscape. As well as this more green initiatives such as the Clean Green Initiative, are on the government’s agenda, following the COP26. This means more training is required to ensure future engineers are trained up on the best practice for future developments.

Andy Gillings, Sales Area Manager at Taylor Studwelding, said: “ The requirement for green technology will continue to rise as a result of the government’s Clean Green initiative. Along with this the demand for qualified Development, Technical and Software Engineers will increase, as we are beginning to see already.”