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How highways and transportation professionals see their future careers

In this first of its biennial reports tracking employment trends and key skills issues, CIHT has gathered information from a wide selection of people in the UK’s highways and transportation sector. It reveals key insights on the sector, and how it will cope with the challenges of new technologies, the climate crisis and wider economic trends.

This report, based on the 2025 CIHT Sector Employment Trends survey of 975 professionals, highlights the state of play in employment in the highways and transportation sector.

Analysis of the survey has revealed:

• The Talent Landscape – a battle for talent is brewing with a static pool of available staff
• Building Expertise & CPD – there is a need for more structured programme for staff development
• Net Zero and Environmental Confidence – a gloomy outlook on net zero means we need to turn ambition into action
• Artificial Intelligence and Technology – the sector needs to take advantage of AI tools
• UK Outlook - confidence in the UK government’s ability to deliver major infrastructure projects is low but there is some optimism at the personal and local level
• Equality, Diversity and Inclusion – EDI has a vital role to lay in ensuring the success of the profession through diversity of thought and experience

Skills for the Future

To meet the challenges ahead, we need a clear national skills plan and have identified four pillars to support this.

1. Workforce planning embedded in infrastructure strategies.
2. Investment in technical education, apprenticeships, and lifelong learning.
3. Professional competence and ethics as standard across the profession.
4. Support for EDI in recruitment, progression, and training.

These pillars are the foundation for a skilled, inclusive, and future-ready workforce.