Economic Turbulence Reshapes Recruitment in Engineering, Manufacturing & Technology.
The 2025 Strategic Salary Survey by Euro Projects Recruitment offers an unprecedented deep dive into the UK's engineering, technology, and manufacturing talent market. Compiled through analysis of 1,000+ engineering and manufacturing vacancies and insights from over 5,000 industry professionals, this comprehensive report unveils critical trends transforming workforce strategies across multiple sectors.
What's Inside?
Challenges and Opportunities
The past year has been characterised by significant economic uncertainty. Key indicators reveal a nuanced landscape including:
Vacancy trends: Permanent job openings hit a four-year low, reaching 831,000 – the lowest since May 2021
Unemployment: Increased from 3.9% to 4.3%, signalling market volatility
Salary ranges: Engineering and Manufacturing pay rises ranging from 2% to 5%
The survey reports several recruitment challenges facing engineering, manufacturing and technology businesses that are reshaping their talent acquisition strategies, including:
Salary Expectations: Candidates consistently seeking compensation beyond budgeted ranges
Retention Pressures: Widespread counter-offer strategies by current employers
Talent Scarcity: Persistent shortage of suitable candidates in certain business areas
Workplace Flexibility: Growing demand for alternative work arrangements
Sector-Specific Insights
The 2025 Strategic Salary Survey contains analysis and commentary from our sector-specific recruitment experts spanning 11 key business areas, offering precise data on hiring trends across a wide range of roles including:
Executive
Manufacturing
Technical & Engineering
Programme & Project Management
IT
Purchasing & Supply Chain
Sales & Marketing
Finance & Accounting
Human Resources & Administration.
Area Snapshot: Technical and Engineering
Technical and Engineering recruitment remains a dynamic and competitive field. Salary and overall packages continue to rise, driven by the competition for talent and the increasing value placed on specialised skills. Despite strong demand, recruitment in 2024 faced several key challenges including talent shortages where the competition for skilled engineers and technical professionals is fierce, particularly in areas such as electronics and software engineering.
With high levels of competition and the availability of remote opportunities, talent retention has also become a key area of focus, with businesses seeking to offer continuous learning opportunities, competitive salary and packages and career development paths, whilst remembering ‘not one size fits all.’
To overcome skills gaps, many businesses are investing in upskilling and cross-training their current teams. This helps employees develop and enables employers to adapt to new technological advancements, making them more agile and resilient.
As businesses continue to face challenges in recruiting and retaining top technical and engineering talent in 2025, investments in training, employee engagement, career development paths, and innovative recruitment practices will be essential to staying ahead in a continuously evolving market.
Emerging Workforce Priorities
The Euro Projects Recruitment Executive, Engineering, Manufacturing & Technology Salary & Pay Awards Guide highlights critical shifts in employee expectations including:
Flexible work arrangements becoming standard practice
Continuous professional development as a key retention strategy
Mental health support emerging as a crucial employee benefit
The report also examines the status of more general benefits offered by businesses at both an executive and non-executive level such as pension contributions, holiday entitlement, healthcare, company cars/car allowances and death in service contributions.
Future Outlook
Our customers, Engineering, Manufacturing and Technical businesses have shared their outlook for 2025. Anticipating a challenging recruitment environment, they've provided details of potential pay increases, further focus on retention through innovative strategies and emphasis on organisational culture and employee engagement.
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More Information
Email: recruitment@europrojects.co.uk