News for Tool Hire, Equipment Hire & Plant Hire and Rental Professionals

JCB recruits to meet unprecedented demand

28 June 2021

JCB recruits to meet unprecedented demand

I try to limit the number of times I use the word ‘unprecedented’, because it crops up so frequently when talking about Covid-19 and its aftermath, but I feel I have had to include it here.

It sums up the current demand for plant and machinery, which has led to JCB’s chief executive officer, Graeme Macdonald, today saying simply that “We have never seen anything like this in the 75-year history of JCB.” 

The manufacturer has started a fresh recruitment drive for 500 new shop floor employees in response. It is setting on these additional agency workers at its 11 plants in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham, on top of 850 shop floor jobs already created so far in 2021. 

JCB is also offering an additional 300 agency employees permanent JCB contracts, which will bring the total number of agency shop floor employees given permanent jobs this year to 1,000. 

The moves follow record demand for JCB’s construction and agricultural products, with most new machines already sold out until next year. 

Graeme Macdonald also said, “The recovery continues to gather momentum and we have tens of thousands of new machine orders sitting on our books stretching well into next year.” 

That view certainly corresponds with the views of hirers on the blog who report demand for equipment at levels that are - I’ll say it again - unprecedented.

Hopefully this latest round of recruitment at JCB will boost production and ease the delays in supply. It really is an astonishing situation, given the bleak general outlook when the first lockdown was announced in March 2020. 


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