Manufacturers in the West Midlands are back in business – but Anna Blackaby finds it’s proving tough to find the staff to support their resurgence.

With exports bouncing back and big orders released that were put on hold during the recession, Gerry Dunne is interviewing for new staff at his Birmingham engineering firm.

Given the region’s jobless statistics – 9.9 per cent unemployment, the highest in the country – precision pressings and tooling firm Westley Engineering could be forgiven for expecting a deluge of applicants.

The factory is located in the Birmingham area of Newtown, part of the Ladywood parliamentary constituency which has among the highest levels of joblessness in the country.

But the only people with the right skills who have answered the job ads, publicised through four agencies and Job Centre Plus, are sixty-year-olds.

Mr Dunne said: “As things started to increase turnover-wise in the last six to eight months and with the future looking very rosy, we are now looking to take on people that are skilled.

“I’m looking for one on the machining side, one on the toolmaking side and one on the estimating side.

“For the estimating job, virtually nobody came by and the guy I eventually took on was a sixty-year-old. Today I’ve been interviewing for a toolroom manager’s position.

“I’ve had three applicants, one of them in their mid-forties who didn’t have enough experience and the only guy with experience is a sixty-year-old.”

Mr Dunne pointed to the legacy of the demise of engineering giants in the area, which is still being felt by today’s manufacturers.

“There’s an era when training stopped, when Lucas and places like that stopped employing people.

“That has left a void from the ages of 20 to about 35 to 40 – there’s nobody in that range,” he said.

His words are echoed at another factory in Birmingham’s inner city – Barkley Plastics in Highgate – which specialises in design, toolmaking, moulding and assembly.

Like others in the sector, Barkley Plastics was hit hard in the recession, shedding 25 per cent of the workforce, but a resurgence in orders, especially exports, means it has come back to near the level of jobs it supported three years ago.

A quick look at the skilled workers on the shopfloor brings home the challenges that lie ahead in the medium term.

Justin Anstey, the firm’s business development manager, said: “The guys we have in our toolroom are all late forties, which is great today but our concern is in 10 years down the line.

“Designers are hard to come by, and trying to find a good designer which understands the business is very hard and very expensive.

“I believe there will be a gap in 10 to 15 years’ time.”

The previous Government and now the coalition Government have recognised the issue, putting a renewed emphasis on on-the-job training with George Osborne announcing last year an extra 75,000 apprenticeships.

Both Westley Engineering and Barkley Plastics are looking to take on apprentices this year.