Figures published today highlight the specific characteristics and challenges of each sector across the engineering construction industry (ECI).
The Engineering Construction Industry Training Board’s (ECITB) new report provides a sectoral breakdown of the ECI from data gathered in its 2024 Workforce Census.
The ECITB published the overarching findings of its latest Census on 14 January and followed this up on 4 February with a regional report, which analysed the geographical disparities across England, Scotland and Wales.
The ECI spans the oil and gas, nuclear, power generation, renewables, chemicals, food and drink, pharmaceuticals and water treatment sectors. ECI companies provide a range of services for clients in these sectors, including engineering design, procurement, project management, construction, repair and maintenance and decommissioning.
The industry-led skills body’s new Sectoral Census report offers a detailed analysis of differences between these eight sectors, alongside the emerging hydrogen and carbon capture and storage sectors.
It also examines the engineering construction workforce involved in smaller sectors by workforce size, such as steel manufacturing, and those operating in adjacent industries.
Data collected in May and June 2024 from 162 ECI companies*, representing 74,609 workers across 1,621 locations, covers geographical distribution, occupational breakdowns, recruitment difficulties and business opportunities across 12 sectoral sections in the report.
“Our Sectoral Workforce Census report reveals that the ECI workforce in each sector exhibits distinct demographic characteristics.
“It provides detailed occupational data and sector-specific hiring challenges, giving us unique insights into workforce capabilities and training needs.
“Collecting this type of detailed data gives not only the ECITB, but all our stakeholders, critical insights into the make-up and future direction of our industry and will allow for evidence-based, targeted initiatives and interventions in each sector.
“It will be a vital resource to help underpin our new strategy for 2026-30, which is set to be launched later this year after industry consultation.”
Andrew Hockey
ECITB Chief Executive
Trends from sector report
- The nuclear sector has emerged as the largest ECI sector by workforce size, employing 39.2% of the engineering construction workforce, overtaking the oil and gas sector.
- The renewables and water treatment sectors have experienced notable growth in ECI workers since the last Census in 2021, increasing their workforce shares to 6.2% and 2.9% respectively.
- The hydrogen and carbon capture sectors now account for 2.3% of the workforce. More than 88% of roles in these sectors remain office-based, compared to nuclear (60%) and chemicals (57%) where a greater proportion of the workforce is based on site.
- Reliance on non-UK workers varies significantly, with renewables, hydrogen and conventional power generation sectors employing 10-14% non-UK nationals, while this figure drops to nearly 1% in pharmaceuticals.
- Age demographics present a challenge, particularly in the oil and gas, chemicals and food and drink sectors, where up to 42% of workers are aged 50 or older. Oil and gas is especially concerning, with only 12% of its workforce under 30.
- Workforce growth expectations are positive across all sectors but are particularly strong in conventional power generation and renewables.
- Pictured: An ECITB delegation on a tour of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station building site.
Key findings by sector from ECITB Census
- Carbon capture and storage employers anticipate a 12% increase in their ECI workforce over the next three years. The sector also has a higher proportion of workers under 30 (22%) compared to the wider ECI (17%).
- The chemicals sector employs 6% of the ECI workforce, with 27% of this made up of craft workers (27%), including a high number of scaffolders, pipefitters and mechanical fitters.
- With 27% of its workforce women, the hydrogen sector has one of the least unbalanced gender distributions in the ECI.
- Unlike most sectors, the food and drink workforce is dispersed across numerous locations rather than concentrated in a few hotspots.
- The nuclear ECI workforce has a higher proportion of managers and professional workers, such as project managers, while 3.12% of the workforce are apprentices and trainees, compared to 2.4% across the wider ECI.
- The pharmaceuticals sector is the smallest, representing 0.9% of the industry’s workforce, down from 2% in 2021. The sector is more diverse in terms of ethnicity, with 15.4% of the workforce identifying as from a minority ethnic background compared to 7.5% in the wider ECI.
- Although the share of the ECI workforce working in the oil and gas sector has decreased (from 36.7% to 35.2%), this does not reflect a loss of workers as the workforce has still grown in recent years from 30,700 to 33,350.
- Major workforce hotspots in the renewables sector include London, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle and Drax. Of its six subsectors, biomass (24%) and energy from waste (21%) make up the biggest share of the ECI workforce.*
- Employers in the water treatment sector expect their workforce to increase by 16%, a four-percentage-point difference from the industry-wide estimate of 12%, with the report citing ‘historically high investments’ in the sector.
- More than 2,000 workers employed by ECI companies are involved in projects outside of engineering construction, largely in defence (39%) but also in areas such as rail, construction and utilities.
*The Census focuses on employers within the ECITB’s scope and, as such, may not fully encompass the entire ECI workforce in each sector. Also, according to the Industrial Training Act, the Industrial Training Order and the supporting legislation, the definition of the ECITB’s scope outlines that the offshore component of the offshore wind sector falls outside its remit.
