£47,000: the real cost of every unfilled technical role in Lancashire and Cumbria

Every specialist technical role left unfilled now costs businesses in Lancashire and Cumbria an average of more than £47,000, once lost productivity, project delays and cover are taken into account. That is the headline finding of the 2026 Skills Barometer, published by the Lancashire and Cumbria Institute of Technology (L&C IoT).

Now in its third year, the annual report has for the first time put a financial figure on the cost of the region's skills shortage. Drawing on national data and interviews with regional businesses across five priority sectors - engineering and manufacturing, construction, health and science, digital and cyber, and clean energy and sustainability - it reaches a consistent conclusion: in a labour market this tight, recruitment alone can no longer close the gap.

The Skills Barometer describes a regional labour market with very little slack left. Nationally there are just 2.5 unemployed people for every vacancy, and both Lancashire and Cumbria trail the UK on higher-level qualifications - 42.7 per cent of Lancashire residents and 40.2 per cent in Cumbria are qualified to Level 4 or above, against a Great Britain average of 48.6 per cent (Nomis Labour Market Profiles). The report argues this is not a simple shortage of people but a mismatch - too few workers with the higher technical and supervisory skills businesses now need.

Its central message to managing directors, owners and finance directors is that the most reliable and cost-effective response is to build capability from within - developing existing staff and growing new talent through Level 4 and 5 higher technical education. External hires are slow and expensive, with only around half still in post after 18 months, while staff developed internally tend to stay far longer, with retention rates of 80 to 95 per cent. The report features regional businesses already taking this approach, including Blackpool Transport, Eric Wright Group, O'Briens Pharmacy Group, Citation Cyber and Trident Utilities.

Linda Dean, managing director of the Lancashire and Cumbria Institute of Technology, said: “For three years, this Skills Barometer has measured the skills challenge facing Lancashire and Cumbria. This year we have put a price on it, and it is a sobering one. Every unfilled specialist role is now costing businesses in our region more than £47,000. Seen one vacancy at a time, that is a headache. Seen across a sector, it is a serious drag on growth.

“The important thing is that the gap is real, but it is solvable. The businesses in this report have reached the same conclusion from very different starting points - that the surest route to a workforce that can deliver is to build it from within, not simply to compete for scarce talent on an open market that has stopped supplying. You do not have to wait for talent to arrive. You can help build it, and that is exactly what we are here to help businesses do.”