Written by Richard Bourne 18th August 2026

Ask most manufacturing employers what they want from a new employee and the answer sounds perfectly reasonable.

They want someone experienced, reliable and productive. They want someone who can read drawings, operate machinery, check quality, use tools safely and move between departments when production demands change.

The difficulty is that businesses are increasingly looking for all these abilities in one person.

Job descriptions are becoming shopping lists of skills, while the pay difference between entry-level and skilled work is getting smaller. Employers are facing higher employment and operating costs, while candidates need wages that keep pace with rent, travel, food and household bills.

Neither side is being unreasonable. However, the gap between what employers want and what the local labour market can realistically provide is becoming harder to ignore.

The cost of employing someone has risen faster than the hourly rate suggests

The National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over increased from £11.44 in April 2024 to £12.21 in April 2025 and £12.71 in April 2026. That is an increase of approximately 11.1% in two years. Source: GOV.UK National Minimum Wage rates

However, the wage is only one part of the employer’s cost.

In April 2025, employer National Insurance increased from 13.8% to 15%, while the annual threshold at which employers start paying it fell from £9,100 to £5,000. Source: HMRC Employer Bulletin

Here is an illustrative comparison for an employee working 40 paid hours a week throughout the year:

Core employment cost	April 2024 rates	April 2026 rates	Increase
Hourly wage	£11.44	£12.71	11.1%
Annual gross pay	£23,795	£26,437	11.1%
Employer National Insurance	£2,028	£3,216	58.6%
Minimum employer pension contribution	£527	£606	15.0%
Combined total	£26,350	£30,258	14.8%

The pension calculation uses the statutory minimum employer contribution of 3% of qualifying earnings. Source: The Pensions Regulator

This means the illustrative core cost has increased by almost £3,909 per employee in two years, before allowing for recruitment, training, PPE, overtime, absence, payroll administration or employee benefits.

Eligible businesses may reduce their National Insurance liability through the £10,500 Employment Allowance, so the exact cost will vary. Nevertheless, the underlying increase is significant. Source: GOV.UK Employment Allowance

Labour costs are not rising in isolation

Manufacturers are also dealing with higher material, fuel, transport, energy and supply-chain costs.

In June 2026, prices paid by UK manufacturers for materials and fuels were 7.3% higher than a year earlier. Factory-gate prices, the prices manufacturers received for their products, were up by only 3.5%. Source: ONS Producer Price Inflation

That difference helps explain the pressure many businesses feel. Input costs can rise faster than the prices customers are prepared to accept.

When margins are squeezed, employers naturally look for productivity improvements. They may delay replacing someone who leaves, combine two positions or expect a smaller team to cover more processes.

The result can be a job description asking for a production operative who can also set machines, inspect finished products, complete paperwork, operate a forklift and carry out basic maintenance.

From the employer’s perspective, this is an attempt to control costs. From the candidate’s perspective, it can look like several jobs combined, without the pay reflecting the additional responsibility.

What a manufacturing business genuinely needs

A manufacturing business cannot simply stop production because a cost has increased or a vacancy has become difficult to fill.

Orders still need to be completed. Machines need to run. Materials need to be moved. Products need to be inspected and customers still expect deliveries on time.

Manufacturers therefore need a workforce that provides:

• Reliable attendance
• Safe working practices
• Consistent product quality
• Flexibility across production areas
• Practical problem-solving
• Knowledge of machinery and processes
• The ability to respond when production priorities change
• Enough skills coverage to manage holidays, absence and staff turnover
• People who can train and support less experienced employees

These are genuine operational needs.

The problem arises when every one of these needs is placed into a single vacancy. The job then becomes extremely difficult to fill because the business is not looking for one skill. It is looking for a combination of abilities that may have been spread across several employees in the past.

What does £12.71 actually buy?

The increase to £12.71 was intended to provide a real-terms pay rise. The Low Pay Commission said its 4.1% increase from £12.21 was expected to exceed inflation over the minimum-wage year. Source: Low Pay Commission

However, inflation does not stop when a new minimum-wage rate takes effect.

The ONS Consumer Prices Index increased from 142.1 in April 2026 to 142.5 in June. That is an increase of approximately 0.28%, meaning £12.71 in June had roughly the same purchasing power as £12.67 did when the rate took effect in April. Source: ONS Consumer Price Inflation, June 2026

It is important not to overstate this. After adjusting for inflation, £12.71 was still worth slightly more than the previous £12.21 rate when that was introduced in April 2025. The increase has produced a small real improvement nationally.

The difficulty is that headline inflation does not reflect every worker’s personal costs.

A real West Midlands cost-of-living example

Housing demonstrates the issue clearly.

Between June 2025 and June 2026:

• The average monthly private rent in Walsall increased from £844 to £912, an 8.1% rise and an additional £68 each month. Source: ONS Walsall rental data
• In Cannock Chase, the average increased from £811 to £854, a 5.3% rise and an additional £43 each month. Source: ONS Cannock Chase rental data
• In Stafford, the average increased from £843 to £896, a 6.3% rise and an additional £53 each month. Source: ONS Stafford rental data

The Low Pay Commission calculated that a single person working 35 hours a week received a net weekly income increase of £11.90 when the rate rose from £12.21 to £12.71. This is equivalent to approximately £51.57 a month. Its example includes estimated tax, National Insurance and pension deductions. Source: Low Pay Commission Report 2025

For a worker paying the average Walsall rent, the £68 monthly rent increase alone would be greater than that illustrative £51.57 increase in take-home pay.

Every household is different, but this helps explain why candidates can receive an above-inflation hourly increase and still feel no better off.

Travel matters too. Manufacturing sites are frequently located on industrial estates where public transport is limited. In June 2026, average diesel prices were 176.4 pence per litre and motor-fuel prices were 21.3% higher than a year earlier.

For someone driving to an early, late or night shift, commuting can take a noticeable share of their wage. Source: ONS Consumer Price Inflation

Is the reward for learning a skill still large enough?

This is where the skilled-pay problem becomes particularly important.

In current local recruitment, a welder-fabricator may be offered around £15 per hour. That is £2.29 above the National Living Wage, a premium of approximately 18%.

A forklift or loading position paying £14 per hour provides a premium of £1.29, approximately 10.1%.

These are examples rather than national averages, and rates vary according to location, shift, qualifications and responsibility. However, they demonstrate the issue.

To earn the additional money, the worker may need:

• A recognised forklift qualification
• Welding and fabrication experience
• The ability to work from engineering drawings
• Responsibility for expensive machinery or materials
• Greater health and safety awareness
• Accountability for quality and production targets
• Flexibility to work nights or rotating shifts

When the difference is only £1.29 or £2.29 an hour, some workers will question whether the training, responsibility and additional pressure are worthwhile.

The Low Pay Commission confirms that this is happening across the wider labour market. It found that the premium between the National Living Wage and the median wage in low-paying industries narrowed from 15% to 14% in 2025.

It also reported concerns from manufacturers who were finding it difficult to recognise semi-skilled and skilled employees through meaningful pay differences. Employers said compressed pay structures were affecting morale, recruitment and employees’ willingness to progress. Source: Low Pay Commission Report 2025

This does not mean the minimum wage is too high. It means pay above the minimum has not always moved at the same pace.

An ageing workforce is taking valuable skills with it

The manufacturing skills problem is not only about today’s vacancies. It is also about who will be available in five or ten years.

The UK workforce is ageing. Government analysis has found that approximately one in three UK workers is aged over 50. In engineering construction, the proportion is around 38%. Source: UK Government assessment of the clean-energy skills challenge

The age profile is not the same in every manufacturing occupation, but some skilled manufacturing trades are particularly dependent on older workers. ONS analysis found that nearly half of the workers in several specialist manufacturing trades were aged 50 or over. Source: ONS analysis of occupations dependent on older workers

Make UK has also reported that more than half of manufacturers expect between 6% and 20% of their workforce to retire within ten years. Source: Make UK 2030 Skills report

When an experienced worker retires, the business does not only lose one employee.

It may lose decades of practical knowledge about:

• Machine settings
• Materials and tolerances
• Product-specific fabrication methods
• Common faults and how to resolve them
• Quality problems that are not obvious from a drawing
• The safest and most efficient way to complete a task
• How a particular customer expects its product to be finished
• How to train and support less experienced employees

Much of this knowledge may never have been written down. It has been developed through years of working with the company’s machinery, products and customers.

A job description cannot fully capture that experience.

Retiring workers are difficult to replace like for like

A business may have employed a maintenance engineer for 25 years who gradually learned the mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic systems across the site.

When that person retires, the replacement job description may ask for all those skills from the first day.

The employer understandably wants someone who can provide the same coverage. However, the retiring employee probably did not arrive with the complete skillset either. Their knowledge was built gradually through experience, training and exposure to the company’s equipment.

The same applies to welders, fabricators, machine setters, vehicle builders, toolmakers, quality inspectors and production supervisors.

Replacing someone with decades of company-specific experience is not the same as filling an ordinary vacancy. The employer may be searching for a combination of technical knowledge that exists in very few people within a realistic travelling distance.

This is one reason job descriptions become shopping lists. Employers are trying to replace everything that is being lost, but the external market may not contain a ready-made equivalent.

Hiring fewer people reduces the future supply of skills

Higher employment costs can lead businesses to recruit fewer people. In the short term, that may protect margins and keep the company operating efficiently.

In the longer term, it can reduce the number of people who get the opportunity to become skilled.

A newly recruited production operative might develop into a machine setter. A general welder might learn fabrication and drawing interpretation. A mechanical assembler might progress into hydraulics, pneumatics or maintenance. A forklift driver might become a loading supervisor or warehouse team leader.

These progressions only happen when people are given an opportunity to enter the industry and learn.

When businesses reduce entry-level recruitment, apprenticeship numbers and workplace training, fewer developing workers reach the middle of the labour market. Several years later, employers discover that there are not enough experienced candidates available.

Make UK has described manufacturing as facing a combination of an ageing workforce, early retirement and falling apprenticeship starts. Its 2025 Industrial Strategy Skills Commission report said manufacturing and engineering apprenticeship starts had fallen by 42% since the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced. Source: Make UK Industrial Strategy Skills Commission

The business may save the cost of one trainee today, but the wider market loses a potential skilled worker for the future.

This becomes even more serious when older employees retire. The people who could have passed their knowledge on are no longer there, while the less experienced workers who could have learned from them were never recruited.

The training paradox

Cost pressure is encouraging employers to look for fully trained people, but it is also reducing the training that creates those people.

The Low Pay Commission reported that the proportion of employers cutting training expenditure increased from 5% in 2021 to 15% in 2025. The proportion investing in training to improve productivity fell from 13% in 2023 to 8% in 2025.

It also heard directly from employers who had started insisting on previous experience because they no longer felt able to fund entry-level training. Source: Low Pay Commission Report 2025

This creates a cycle:

1. Employers need more skilled people.
2. Costs make employers reluctant to recruit and train.
3. Fewer people gain the required skills.
4. Experienced workers retire and take knowledge with them.
5. Employers compete for the same limited group of skilled candidates.
6. Vacancies become harder and more expensive to fill.
7. Job descriptions become even more demanding.

Every company wants someone else to have completed the training, but the market cannot produce skilled welders, fabricators, setters, maintenance engineers and supervisors without businesses giving people opportunities to develop.

Why job descriptions become shopping lists

When every additional employee carries a substantial cost, combining responsibilities can look efficient.

A business that previously employed a welder, a forklift driver and a quality inspector may look for a welder who can move materials and inspect finished work. A production operative may also be expected to set machinery, complete basic maintenance and cover despatch.

There is nothing wrong with multi-skilled work. A flexible shop floor can improve productivity, reduce disruption and create better career opportunities.

The problem comes when the business expects the complete combination to be readily available in the external market.

A candidate might be a good MIG welder but have limited fabrication experience. An experienced forklift driver might never have supervised a loading team. A machine operator may understand production but need training before completing changeovers or adjusting settings.

The more skills added to a job description, the smaller the available candidate pool becomes.

Official figures show that 27% of all UK vacancies in 2024 were skills-shortage vacancies, roles employers found difficult to fill because applicants lacked the required skills, qualifications or experience.

Manufacturing was among the sectors with the highest proportion of employers reporting hard-to-fill vacancies, at 12%. Source: Department for Education Employer Skills Survey 2024

Understanding the need versus the want

A successful recruitment process starts by understanding what the business genuinely needs.

An employer may want a candidate who can weld, fabricate, read complex drawings, operate a forklift, inspect finished products and supervise other people.

The more useful questions are:

• Which skills must the person have on their first day?
• Which duties will they complete every day?
• Which skills are only needed occasionally?
• What can an experienced employee teach them?
• Could some responsibilities remain with another department?
• Is the pay rate competitive for the full combination of skills?
• Would removing one non-essential requirement create a much larger candidate pool?
• Is the business replacing one role or trying to replace the knowledge of several previous employees?
• Could someone with strong base skills develop into the position?

This distinction between need and want can make a difficult vacancy far more realistic.

What employers actually need from a recruitment brief

The answer is not to remove standards or ignore essential skills. Safety-critical and technically demanding roles must still be filled by competent people.

The answer is to divide the requirements into three groups.

Essential from day one

These are the skills needed to perform the role safely. They may include a valid licence, proven welding ability, electrical qualifications or experience operating particular equipment.

Trainable within the first three months

These could include the company’s products, internal systems, quality procedures, machinery controls or a different style of engineering drawing.

Future development

These are additional skills the employee could learn over time, such as machine setting, inspection, team leadership, fabrication or basic maintenance.

This approach widens the candidate pool without compromising safety or quality. It also gives the employee a genuine reason to develop and remain with the company.

Pay should reflect the complete job

If responsibilities are combined, the rate should reflect the most demanding parts of the position, not simply the lowest-paid task.

A worker taking responsibility for welding quality, forklift movements, machinery, paperwork and production targets should see a clear financial benefit from acquiring and using those skills.

Meaningful pay progression gives people a reason to learn. It also makes it easier to retain experienced staff once they become fully competent.

Training has a cost, but so do repeated recruitment, overtime, production delays and vacancies that remain open for months.

How Bespoke Career Solutions can help

At Bespoke Career Solutions, we offer a consultative approach to manufacturing, engineering and logistics recruitment.

We do not simply take a job title and advertise it. We discuss the role with the employer in detail so that we understand the work being completed, the skills involved, the working environment and the reason the vacancy exists.

This often helps us clarify the difference between what the business needs and what it would ideally like.

We can help employers identify:

• The skills that are genuinely essential
• The requirements that can be trained
• The responsibilities that may be making the vacancy unnecessarily difficult
• Transferable skills that could provide a suitable starting point
• Whether the business is trying to replace one employee or several skillsets
• How the rate compares with other local opportunities
• Whether the job title accurately reflects what candidates will be doing

We discuss jobs with employers and candidates every day. This gives us a good understanding of how candidates view a vacancy, which skills are available locally and where a pay rate is likely to need to be pitched.

Sometimes the best solution is to increase the rate so that it reflects the full level of skill and responsibility required.

In other cases, the better option is to de-skill the shopping list. This means removing requirements that are not essential from day one, considering transferable experience and putting a realistic training plan in place.

This can widen the candidate pool, reduce the time the vacancy remains open and give the employer a better chance of finding someone who will stay and develop with the business.

Closing the gap

Employers want productive, flexible and skilled people. Candidates want fair pay, stability and a reason to take on more responsibility.

Both expectations are reasonable.

The challenge is creating roles that reflect the real labour market. That means separating essential experience from trainable skills, protecting meaningful pay differences and recognising that many of tomorrow’s skilled workers will need to be developed rather than found ready-made.

It also means planning before experienced employees retire.

Businesses that record skills, transfer knowledge and recruit developing workers before the expertise is lost will be in a much stronger position. Those that wait until the last experienced welder, setter, engineer or supervisor leaves may discover that the exact replacement they want does not exist locally.

The perfect candidate may not already be available. However, with a realistic job brief, an appropriate pay rate and structured training, the right person may be much closer than the original shopping list suggests.

To discuss your recruitment needs, contact Bespoke Career Solutions:

Telephone: 0121 818 5188
Email: jobs@bespokecareersolutions.com
Website: www.bespokecareersolutions.com

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Data checked on 18 August 2026. Calculations are illustrative and individual employment costs and household circumstances will vary.