The UK Trade Skills Index 2023: The missing million: Will we find enough tradespeople in the workforce to build the future Britain?

The Trade Skills Index highlights a catastrophic skills gap engulfing the construction sector over the coming 10 years. There is a drastic need 937,000 new recruits in trades and construction by 2032 to combat the widening skills loss posed by Brexit, an ageing workforce and rising costs in order to meet construction demand. Of the 937,000 new workers required, nearly a quarter of a million – 244,000 – must be qualified apprentices in order to plug a growing gap.