The new collar workforce
Competing for the talent to deliver the next industrial revolution
Technology may be transforming industry, but people will determine how quickly that transformation can happen.
New research commissioned by SEGRO and undertaken with Randstad Advisory finds that businesses across Europe are increasingly competing for workers who combine practical experience with technical and digital capabilities.
These are the new collar workers who operate, maintain and optimise increasingly sophisticated technology across manufacturing, logistics, life sciences, retail, construction, defence and data centres.
The research examines eight European markets and draws on labour-market and workforce data, including analysis of approximately 13,000 companies and more than 400,000 job advertisements.
Its central finding is clear: the next industrial revolution risks being constrained by the availability of people capable of putting technology to work.
Explore the underlying Randstad Advisory research
What is a new collar worker?
New collar roles combine the practical knowledge found in established frontline, operational and technical occupations with skills in areas such as automation, data, engineering and digital technology.
They include people responsible for operating, diagnosing, maintaining and improving increasingly technology-enabled systems.
And many of the workers who could fill these jobs are already in the workforce.
An electrician can develop into a data centre technician. A maintenance mechanic can become a mechatronics technician. A site supervisor can move into digital construction. Existing knowledge provides the foundation, with targeted technical training providing the bridge.
What the research tells us
Technology is moving faster than workforce capability
79% of EU companies cite skilled-staff shortages as an investment barrier, while 58% of employers expect robotics and automation to change their business by 2030.
Across the roles analysed, between 21% and 46% of vacancies remain unfilled.
Investment in technology therefore needs to be accompanied by investment in the people required to deploy, operate and maintain it.
Different industries are competing for the same people
Manufacturing, logistics, defence, life sciences, data centres, retail and construction increasingly need many of the same skills.
Capabilities including automation, mechatronics, electrical systems, robotics and predictive maintenance cut across traditional sector boundaries.
The result is a labour market in which a manufacturer may increasingly find itself competing with a data centre, logistics operator or life sciences company for the same technical workforce.
Much of the future workforce already exists
Only 9% of Europe's existing blue collar workforce currently possesses the next generation of industrial skills identified by the research.
But many emerging occupations build directly on established experience.
The research identifies transitions ranging from electricians moving into high-voltage data centre roles to mechanics becoming robotics and autonomous-systems specialists.
The opportunity is therefore not simply to recruit a new workforce. It is to help far more of the existing one make the transition.
The hardest jobs to fill are often those that have to be done in person
Around 40% of vacancies for the site-dependent roles examined remain unfilled, compared with around 13% for more location-flexible roles.
The technicians needed inside factories, warehouses, laboratories, construction sites and data centres cannot simply work from anywhere.
That makes access to a local technical workforce an increasingly important consideration when businesses decide where to invest.
A local challenge
Talent, infrastructure and innovation are not spread evenly.
The combined analysis identifies European industrial clusters where those ingredients already overlap, including Munich and Southern Germany, Paris and Île-de-France, London and the South East, Rhine-Ruhr, the Dutch industrial and logistics corridor, Northern Italy and Prague.
That makes the next industrial revolution a local as well as a national competitiveness challenge.
Four priorities for expanding the new collar workforce
Create pathways between occupations
Training should be built around the skills people already possess and the specific capabilities they need to move into emerging roles.
Make new collar careers easier to understand
Young people and existing workers need much clearer routes into technical occupations, from direct entry and apprenticeships to more specialist roles requiring experience.
Plan across sectors
Industries increasingly depend on the same capabilities. Workforce planning needs to reflect total demand within a local economy rather than treating individual sectors in isolation.
Give SMEs access to specialist training
Smaller businesses often need the same capabilities as larger employers but cannot independently provide expensive equipment or training facilities. Shared regional infrastructure can help prevent them being left behind.
Read the research
The New Collar Workforce: Competing for the talent to deliver the next industrial revolution
Explore the evidence, sector analysis, European market perspectives and recommendations in the full SEGRO report.
Download the report
For readers who want to examine the underlying analysis in greater detail:
View the original Randstad Advisory research