The cleaning sector's slow-motion recruitment crisis

It doesn't seem long ago that everyone was talking about clean and hygienic workplaces.

Covid ended the idea that a clean workplace was "nice to have". It showed that cleaning is a big part of keeping workplaces running, because it cuts the chances of illness spreading between colleagues.

Yet for a sector worth nearly £72bn to the UK economy, the lack of support for training and recruitment is walking the industry towards a serious, long-lasting recruitment crisis.

Is the sector sleepwalking into a recruitment hole?

At 691,000 in July to September 2026, UK vacancies are at their lowest level outside the pandemic since 2014.

In cleaning, though, the British Cleaning Council (BCC) says businesses are still struggling to fill vacancies. And we'd argue a bigger problem is on the way.

In 2024, the BCC put the share of cleaning workers aged over 55 at 27%. Its latest research puts it at 29%, against 24% across all sectors.

So more than a quarter of the workforce, and rising, is over 55, and many of them will retire within the next decade.

The National Foundation for Educational Research predicts that elementary administration and service roles, a group that includes cleaners, will need around 1.36m replacement workers between 2020 and 2035.

It's hard to see where they'll come from. Only 9% of the cleaning workforce is under 25, against 11% across the economy, even though nearly a million young people are not in education, employment or training.

Overseas recruitment has largely closed too. Free movement ended in 2021, cleaning roles have never qualified for the Skilled Worker visa, and the rise in its threshold to degree level in July 2025 moved it even further out of reach.

Funding cuts are making it worse

That puts more weight on training people already in the UK, and that's being hit by government cuts.

Just one in ten cleaning and hygiene operatives report receiving job-related training in the last three months, against one in four across all occupations.

The Level 2 Cleaning Hygiene Operative apprenticeship was meant to change that. It launched in January 2024 as the sector's first apprenticeship for new entrants, after years of campaigning by the BCC.

But from September 2026, new starts on the apprenticeship no longer receive government funding.

BCC Chair David Garcia called the decision "an alarming step backwards", and we agree. The government says it is refocusing funding on young people, yet it has withdrawn support from a sector that badly needs more young people to join.

What needs to happen

First, the government should restore funding for the entry-level apprenticeship.

Cleaning also needs more attention when skills gaps and recruitment are being planned. Skills England's 2026 annual skills report doesn't mention the cleaning sector at all.

It isn't only a government problem, though. The sector needs to do more to help itself.

Employers that can afford to keep taking on apprentices should do so, and we need to talk more about career progression. The industry is often seen as "just cleaning", but there are real careers in it, from supervision and contract management to compliance and specialist hygiene roles.

Trade bodies could go further too, with recognised on-the-job certification that workers earn through experience and that employers across the sector value.

Whatever the answer, it needs to come soon. Every year without an entry route is another year of experienced cleaners leaving the sector with no one coming in behind them.