Study: Aircraft, Mx Trades Rapidly Expanding Workforce in UK

Aircraft and maintenance-related trades have led industries in workforce expansion in the past couple of decades in the UK, jumping some 268 percent since 2006, according to an electrician educator.

East Sussex-based training company Electrician Courses 4U (EC4U) surveyed data over 15 years since 2006 from the UK Office for National Statistics, finding that the workforce involved aircraft and maintenance trades has increased by 64,300 people to a total of 88,300 people as of 2021.

The next highest in terms of growth has been rail and rolling stock builders and repairs, by 114 percent to a total of 10,500 workers. This is followed by chefs (up 45 percent), catering and bar managers (31 percent), and bakers and flour confectioners (28 percent).

Conversely, occupations losing the most workers in the 15-year period since 2006 include welding trades, down 59 percent to 31,900, and tool makers and fitters, down 56 percent to 9,500. Other trades on the decline included sheet metal, metal forming, and metal machining. Printers led the list of those on decline, down 85 percent to 8,900 workers.

As for its own specialty, EC4U noted a “well-documented shortage” of electricians, albeit at a more gradual slide than some other trades. That number has dipped by more than 5 percent to 222,300. “Being an electrical training provider, we also wanted to look specifically at how our trades have fared over the last 15 years,” it said.

The aviation and maintenance trades are anticipated to continue their growth trajectories over the coming decades with Boeing seeing a demand for 610,000 new maintenance technicians alone through 2041.