A clear snapshot of the UK engineering and technology workforce: scale, underrepresentation and audiences who need this data
The following briefing distils the most important headline statistics about the UK engineering and technology workforce. It draws on the 2026 Labour Force Survey data together with the engineering footprint to estimate employment in roles classed as engineering and technology.
The analysis identifies both the scale of the workforce — including the fact that around 6.3 million people are in engineering and tech roles — and key patterns in who fills those roles. It also notes that beyond those roles an additional 10% of jobs sit inside the sector but are not technical positions, such as HR or marketing.
This summary is prepared for a variety of readers who shape the sector: employers, policymakers, professional engineering institutions (PEIs) and researchers. The numbers are presented to help organisations plan recruitment, inform strategy and improve monitoring. The data reveal clear strengths in scale and capacity, alongside persistent gaps in diversity that demand targeted attention and sustained action.
Scale and composition of the workforce
At national level the engineering and technology labour pool represents almost one in five jobs in the UK; the briefing estimates that these occupations account for roughly 19% of total employment. The headline figure of 6.3 million people captures occupations that are explicitly technical or engineering-focused. In addition, the sector contains a mix of supporting roles — administrative, commercial and managerial — and these account for about 10% of jobs within the wider engineering and tech sector but fall outside the technical occupation classification. This distinction matters because interventions aimed at workforce development need to separate occupational shortages from sector-wide employment dynamics.
Representation and diversity gaps
Although the overall size of the workforce is substantial, the distribution of people across demographic groups highlights persistent inequalities. The most striking disparity is by gender: women are markedly underrepresented in technical roles. Alongside gender, other diversity markers such as ethnicity and disability also show gaps when compared with the rest of the labour market. These patterns provide a snapshot of who is missing from engineering and technology and point to areas where recruitment and retention efforts can be concentrated.
Gender
Women make up only 17% of people working in engineering and technology occupations, a proportion that contrasts sharply with their representation elsewhere in the economy where they account for about 56% of jobs. The magnitude of this gap suggests structural barriers across education, hiring practices and workplace culture. For organisations aiming to broaden participation, evidence-based actions could include reviewing recruitment pipelines, expanding flexible working, and investing in targeted development pathways to move women into technical and leadership positions.
Ethnicity and disability
Workers from UK minority ethnic backgrounds represent approximately 15% of the engineering and technology workforce, compared with around 18% of roles outside these occupations. Similarly, people with disabilities make up about 14% of engineering and tech jobs versus 18% across other occupations. These differences may reflect a combination of factors such as access to training, workplace accessibility, and inclusive hiring processes. Tackling these issues requires both policy-level incentives and employer-level commitments to remove barriers and expand opportunity.
Implications and actions for stakeholders
The data underline that the UK has a large and strategically important engineering and technology workforce, but that workforce does not yet reflect the diversity of the wider population. For employers, practical steps include auditing recruitment and promotion data, improving workplace accessibility and investing in outreach to underrepresented groups. For policymakers, options include funding targeted training schemes and supporting national initiatives to raise participation. For PEIs and researchers, maintaining robust monitoring and sharing best practice will be essential to track progress and scale successful interventions. Only by combining precise measurement with purposeful action can the sector reduce underrepresentation and make the workforce more reflective of the UK population.
Where to focus next
Priorities arising from these figures are straightforward: improve gender balance, close ethnicity and disability gaps, and align sector-level support with occupation-level needs. Continued use of the Labour Force Survey alongside the engineering footprint will help track change and evaluate whether interventions are narrowing the gaps identified in this briefing. Stakeholders who act on this evidence can shape a more inclusive and resilient engineering and technology workforce for the future.
