Report

Engineering Economy and Place

Engineers are drivers of economic opportunity, positive social impact and advances in technology innovation. This comes from leveraging advances in research to develop and deliver new products, services and enterprises that generate jobs and benefit society. Engineering jobs tend to be relatively high-wage and high-productivity, and therefore should be of considerable value to the local economies in which they are located. However, given the UK has significant geographical inequality, with successes and opportunities not equally spread across the country, we wanted to understand the role engineering currently plays in local economies across the UK.

As an Academy, it is our goal to harness the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone. We are establishing a UK-wide network of Enterprise Hubs to help grow our devolved administration and regional support offer. The first of these regional Hubs opened in Belfast in 2020, followed by Swansea in 2022 and soon Scotland in 2023, helping places, businesses and entrepreneurs set a new level of ambition for their engineering economy.

This report provides insight on the balance of employment in engineering R&D and practice, and on jobs in the engineering economy for non-engineers.