On the 19th of June 2025, the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) released their ‘Construction Workforce Outlook 2025–2029′, outlining both significant opportunities and pressing challenges for the UK construction sector – including the shopfitting industry. With output reaching £215.7 billion in 2024 and projected to grow at an average of 2.1% annually over the next five years, the report highlights a clear need for industry-wide reform in attracting, training, and retaining skilled labour.
Critically, the sector must recruit 47,860 additional workers each year to meet demand, totaling nearly 240,000 new entrants by 2029. Despite current workforce levels exceeding 2.6 million, this figure still lags behind the 2019 peak of 2.8 million, underscoring the urgency of action. While professional and technical roles are expected to grow, nearly half of new positions will be in skilled trades – an area highly relevant to NAS members. Carpenters, joiners, electricians, and labourers are all forecast to see meaningful increases in demand.
The report also reveals encouraging policy developments. Government and CITB are co-investing over £130 million annually into new training programmes, Technical Excellence Colleges, and expanded Skills Bootcamps. Additionally, fast-track training via new Homebuilding Skills Hubs and CITB’s enlarged New Entrant Support Team will aim to better link learners with jobs, especially within SMEs.
For shopfitters, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity. Employers must consider how they can adapt to changing workforce dynamics, invest in training pipelines, and leverage support programmes to secure their future talent. Without this, ongoing labour shortages risk slowing projects and increasing costs, an outcome no business can afford.
