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

We've pulled together key data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) to determine how the manufacturing sector is performing, and where it fits into the wider UK picture.

Let's see if UK manufacturing is thriving or surviving.

GDP (for March 2026)

Manufacturing GDP increased in March by 1.2 points to 101.1. 

GDP for the UK as a whole increased by 0.3 to 103.4.

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

Sub-sector	Growth
Manufacture of vegetable and animal oils and fats	8.3%
Manufacture of wood and wood products except furniture	4.7%
Manufacture of industrial gases, inorganics and fertilisers	4.6%

Employment and vacancies (for April 2026)

Paid employees in manufacturing dropped to 2.28 million in April, showing a small drop of about 10,000 (-0.43%) on March figures.

The number of UK employees also decreased in this month to 30.18 million, a drop of roughly 100,000 (-0.33%).

The number of manufacturing vacancies grew another 1,000 in April as it did in March, up 2.04% to 51,000.

That's in contrast to the UK as a whole, which experienced a decrease in vacancies of 7,000 (0.98%) for April.

Wages and payroll (for March 2026)

Manufacturing mean pay increased again in March. The figure rose £32 (0.86%) to £3,749. The UK overall rose too by £8 (0.23%) to £3,470 (prior figure adjusted).

The manufacturing sector experienced a large increase in aggregate pay of 0.62%, to £8.6 billion per month.

Aggregate pay for the UK increased slightly to £105.1 billion per month, a rise of 0.14%. 

Exports and production (for March 2026)

Exports decreased 0.8% in March 2026.

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

Sub-sector	Growth
Manufacture of cement, lime, plaster and articles of concrete	257.1%
Manufacture of vegetable and animal oils and fats	59.7%
Manufacture of wood and wood products except furniture	28.6%

UK production values (for March 2026)

The three sectors recording the largest percentage of production value growth were:

Sub-sector	Growth
Manufacture of air and spacecraft and related machinery	36.6%
Manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products	31.7%
Manufacture of soft drinks: production of mineral waters and other bottled waters	29.6%

No sector experienced a decrease in production in March 2026

Our take on the latest data

Manufacturing performance through March and April 2026 suggests a sector showing mixed but improving momentum overall, with stronger output and pay trends offset by softer employment and weaker exports.

Manufacturing is still trailing the wider economy in level terms, but the stronger monthly gain suggests some short-term momentum has returned.

Employment in manufacturing softened further, suggesting labour market softness is broader-based rather than sector-specific.

Despite the headcount dip, manufacturing vacancies rose while vacancies across the UK fell. This mix of jobs easing but openings rising still points to skills shortages in key roles, rather than a broad-based hiring recovery.

Exports weakened in March, suggesting external demand remains soft for UK manufacturers even as domestic output indicators improved.

Production momentum strengthened in March. With no manufacturing sub-sector reporting a fall in production, the picture looks more resilient and increasingly closer to “thriving” than “surviving”.

What’s your view on the latest data? Is the sector Thriving or Surviving? Check out the latest developments as we publish data snapshots on our LinkedIn page. Or read the latest year-on-year data supplied by our insights team.

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