The quiet crisis: IGD warns UK food system at risk without urgent action
02 March 2026One in eight of all UK jobs are in the food and drink industry and yet long term workforce shortages and skills gaps risk affecting its future.
As a result, IGD is issuing a rallying cry for coordinated industry action to address these challenges.
Headline findings:
The UK food system currently employs 4.1 million people, that’s one in every eight UK workers, yet ongoing labour and skills shortages show “little sign of improvement”.
946,000 or 1 in 8 young adults are NEET (Not in Education, Training or Employment), despite food and drink businesses struggling to fill essential roles.
Unemployment has risen by 652,000 since 2022, while economic inactivity exceeds 9 million, revealing deep structural weaknesses.
To tackle this growing workforce and skills shortages challenge, IGD is relaunching its Feeding Britain’s Future movement, with six targeted interventions designed to help the industry strengthen the talent pipeline and support employers.
A major new IGD report: Food and drink workforce – a quiet crisis building?, warns that the long‑term structural workforce shortages across the UK food system pose a growing risk to national food security. Despite years of effort from industry and government, labour and skills gaps show little sign of improvement, with pressures increasingly difficult for businesses to absorb behind the scenes.
IGD’s analysis shows the sector is now facing a labour and skills crunch that will not correct itself, even with economic recovery. At the same time, almost one million young people remain detached from the labour market, leaving a huge pool of untapped potential while businesses struggle to fill essential roles across agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, retail and hospitality.
So far, businesses have shielded consumers from disruption, but the report warns the sector is reaching a tipping point. This “quiet crisis” behind supermarket shelves risks becoming visible through reduced availability, declining service levels, rising costs and increased operational strain throughout the supply chain.
Structural pressures reshaping the labour market
IGD has identified several forces driving long‑term instability:
An ageing population, with a growing share of workers retiring and fewer people entering the labour market.
Rising long‑term illness among working‑age adults, shrinking labour supply further.
Migration policies that limit access to people the industry has historically relied on.
An education and training system that does not consistently produce work‑ready candidates, leaving employers reporting gaps in both technical and soft skills.
Changing expectations of work among younger generations.
Signs of strain are already clear: longer vacancy fill times, rising burnout, worsening skills gaps and succession challenges in critical roles such as HGV drivers, engineers and frontline operations.
With 4.1 million people employed across the food system, almost twice the size of the NHS, the stakes are high. Workforce instability threatens product availability, cost pressures, progress on net zero and, ultimately, the UK’s ability to feed itself in an increasingly volatile global environment.
IGD’s response: A coordinated, cross industry initiative
In response, IGD is expanding and relaunching Feeding Britain’s Future, its longstanding industry programme, first introduced in 2012. A launch will follow later this year, but now is the crucial time for industry to start having conversations and engaging with IGD about the programme and how to get involved. The renewed approach will focus on six interventions designed to strengthen the industry’s talent pipeline and support employers to attract, retain and develop essential skills.
The interventions will:
Provide free, cross industry early-career learning to build confidence and highlight long-term careers in food and drink.
Deliver a national schools programme to build skills, confidence and awareness of sector opportunities.
Increase visibility of food sector careers across widely used platforms and digital channels.
Establish strategic university partnerships to raise the profile of food and drink careers.
Deliver scalable work experience opportunities to build confidence and practical skills for young people.
Bring the industry together to amplify a collective voice and champion food and drink careers including its youth focused Mmmakeyourmark campaign.
IGD is also calling for a strengthened government partnership, including a national workforce strategy for food and drink, reform of the Growth and Skills Levy, greater certainty on seasonal and skills-based immigration routes and improved alignment between Jobcentre support, local skills planning and the needs of a strategically critical sector.
Commenting on the report, Naomi Kissman, Social Impact Director at IGD, said:
“This quiet crisis has been building for years, but the pressure is intensifying and will reach a crisis point without a meaningful shift in approach. Our analysis shows this is a structural challenge, bigger than any one business, and it requires industry and government working together to secure the future of the UK food system.
“At the same time, the UK is facing a growing crisis of youth opportunity. We have a responsibility, as the nation’s largest private sector employer, to give young people the future they deserve, as part of a confident, skilled, future-ready workforce.”
The evidence is clear: the UK food and drink sector is experiencing a slow burn workforce crisis that will become increasingly difficult to reverse the longer it is left unaddressed. Rising long-term sickness, an ageing workforce and persistent youth disengagement are shrinking labour supply at the very moment the industry needs more skills, more capacity and more resilience.
If these pressures continue unchecked, the consequences will be felt far beyond the workforce itself. Product availability, operational service levels, cost pressures, the pace of net zero transformation and ultimately the UK’s food security all depend on a stable, skilled labour market.
IGD’s report Food and drink workforce – a quiet crisis building? makes a simple but urgent point: the food system cannot solve this alone. Industry and government must work together to build a long-term, joined up workforce strategy that secures the people, skills and opportunities needed to keep the nation fed for decades to come.
To engage with IGD about getting involved with Feeding Britain’s Future, please contact Harshal Gore, Director of Economic & Workforce Programmes: [email protected].
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The quiet crisis in numbers
The UK food and drink sector employs 4.1 million people; that’s nearly twice the size of the NHS.
Unemployment: 1.9 million, up 652,000 since 2022.
Unemployment rate: 5.2%, masking deep structural weaknesses.
Economic inactivity: over 9 million people.
366,000 young adults unemployed; 580,000 economically inactive.
946,000 young adults (13%) are NEET.
Under 30 representation: 26% agriculture, 33% retail, 46% hospitality (vs 22% UK average).
IGD has trained over 133,000 students through its school’s programme.
Four or more employer encounters make a young person 86% less likely to be unemployed.
Less than half of GCSE students undertake work experience.
There are on average 22,000 food system vacancies advertised at any one time (2025 average).
One third of the workforce is now over 50, up from 22% in 1995.
Economic inactivity among 18–24s has risen from 24% (1995) to 30% (2025).
The UK food system employs 4.1 million people, one in every eight workers, yet faces persistent labour and skills shortages showing “little sign of improvement”.
Almost one million young adults (946,000) are NEET (Not in Education, Training or Employment), while food and drink businesses struggle to fill essential roles, signalling the growing disconnect between labour supply and industry need.
Unemployment has risen by 652,000 since 2022 and economic inactivity now exceeds 9 million, revealing deep structural weaknesses in the UK labour market.
A young person who has four or more encounters with employers is 86% less likely to be unemployed (careers and enterprise company)
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IGD brings together stakeholders from across the food system, fostering action across on critical challenges across a broad cross section of forums. Through evidence-based insights, credible research, and thought leadership, IGD guides businesses to make informed decisions that not only benefit their operations but also contribute to the collective good of society. As a charity with a long-standing commitment to the food and grocery industry, IGD does not advocate for any single commercial interest but works towards fostering alignment on shared goals that can have a positive, lasting impact on both the industry and the communities it serves. Its neutrality and impartiality are key to its role in facilitating collaboration, whether through policy development or addressing emerging risks and opportunities. By staying connected to the changing dynamics of the world, IGD ensures that the food system remains robust and sustainable, creating tangible benefits for businesses, consumers and society.