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Guide to 2020 salary and skills trends in manufacturing

Recruitment firm Michael Page has published a guide to salary and skills trends in the manufacturing job market, which it describes as ‘highly competitive’ and ‘candidate-short’.

According to the report, there has been little change in advertised salary levels within the manufacturing sector on a year-on-year basis. The median average advertised salary during 2019 was £34,800, with Maintenance Engineer the most commonly advertised job role.

Despite the lack of wage growth, the jobs market remains highly competitive - the volume of adverts targeting manufacturing workers is 4.6 per cent higher than the UK average.

In terms of skills, the report points out that the manufacturing sector was notable for attempting to widen its talent pool during 2019 to attract a wider range of ages and experience levels.

The top ten most in-demand skills across the sector, according to Michael Page, are supplier development, agile practices and processes, continuous improvement, leading diverse teams, data-led decision making, adaptability to speed of change, supply and demand planning, stakeholder management, knowledge and understanding of regulation, and sales and operation planning.

 

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Commenting in the report, Nick Kirk, UK Managing Director of Page Group, said:

“Soft skills such as adaptability are more important than ever – and the sooner employers wise up to the value of having an adaptable workforce, the sooner they will reap the benefits, particularly as the consequences of [EU Exit] become apparent.

“Against the political backdrop, the unstoppable march of technology is another driving force of change, as innovations in AI and automation continue to evolve the scope of roles across sectors. This will only accelerate over the next 10 years; indeed, it is exciting to imagine the types of jobs that will have been created by 2030 and the types of skills we will be seeing on CVs as a result.”

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