Thriving or Surviving? The Manufacturing Sector Health Check - April 2026

It’s time to check in on the performance of the manufacturing sector, and see where it fits into the wider UK picture, as we pull together key data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

So without further ado, let’s find out if UK manufacturing is thriving or surviving.

GDP (for February 2026)

Manufacturing GDP declined by a tenth of a point during February, to 100.2.

The UK figure for wider reference was 103.0 – an increase of half a point.

These are the three manufacturing sub-sectors that demonstrated the largest growth in the last month:

Sub-sector	Growth
Repair and maintenance of aircraft and spacecraft	11.4%
Manufacture of other transport equipment	8.5%
Manufacture of electrical equipment	6.2%

Employment and vacancies (for March 2026)

Paid employees in manufacturing dropped to 2.29 million, representing a small decline of around 6,000 (0.26%) on last month.

The number of UK employees also decreased in March to 30.31 million, albeit at a lower rate of 0.04% – 11,000 employees.

The number of manufacturing vacancies rose in March, up 1,000 (2.04%) to 50,000. In contrast, the number of vacancies in the UK as a whole dropped by 10,000 (1.39%) in the same period.

Wages and payroll (for February 2026)

Manufacturing mean pay continued to increase. This month the figure rose by £13 (0.35%) to £3,717. The UK overall saw a weaker growth of 0.06% (£2), to stand at £3,460 (prior figure adjusted).

Aggregate pay for the UK increased slightly – by £38 million or 0.04% – to £104.92 billion per month. The manufacturing sector experienced a large increase of 0.21%, to £8.55 billion per month.

Exports and production (for February 2026)

Exports decreased 5.2% in February 2026.

The three manufacturing sub-sectors which displayed the largest export growth for February were:

Sub-sector	Growth
Processing and preserving of fish, crustaceans, molluscs, fruit and vegetables	26.1%
Printing and reproduction of recorded media	21.2%
Rest of repair & installation	19.0%

UK production values (for February 2026)

The three sectors which recorded the largest percentage of production value growth in February were:

Sub-sector	Growth
Repair and maintenance of aircraft and spacecraft	39.9%
Manufacture of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products	22.7%
Manufacture of other transport equipment	19.7%

The largest falls in production in February 2026 were in:

Subsector	Decrease
Manufacture of leather and related products	-23.8%
Building of ships and boats	-12.3%
Processing and preserving of meat and production of meat products	-9.0%

Our take on the latest data

Manufacturing performance through February to March 2026 suggests a sector that’s losing a little overall momentum, with resilience concentrated in a handful of higher‑value pockets.

With manufacturing GDP’s blip and the wider UK economy recording half a point of GDP growth, the widening gap indicates manufacturing is underperforming broader growth, even if only mildly.

Paid employees both within the sector and overall are declining, while vacancies rose.

This combination of jobs easing but openings rising points to continued skills tightness in key roles, rather than broad-based hiring demand.

Exports weakened in February, down 5.2%, removing the external tailwind seen earlier and signalling softer demand conditions for UK manufacturers.

Production momentum is uneven — strong gains in aircraft maintenance (+39.9%) and select categories sit alongside sharp falls in leather (‑23.8%) and shipbuilding (‑12.3%). Overall, it still looks more like “surviving” than “thriving”, albeit with clear bright spots.

What’s your view on the latest data? Is the sector Thriving or Surviving? Check out the latest developments on our LinkedIn page, and read the latest year-on-year data from our insights team.

Enginuity on LinkedIn