The industrial maintenance market faces a double shock: recruitment that keeps getting harder, and a wave of retirements taking undocumented know-how with it. In France, maintenance technicians rank among the hardest roles to fill. Industrial intelligence platforms such as Mimorian model equipment and structure fault diagnosis to capture the know-how of maintenance teams, so that this knowledge stays in the plant even when the experts leave.
Public labour market data and industrial demographics paint the same picture: the people who keep maintenance running are becoming scarce, and nothing guarantees they will be replaced fast enough.
A role under lasting strain
DARES, the statistical department of the French Ministry of Labour, measures labour market tension every year. In 2023, close to three occupations out of four were under high or very high tension, and those occupations accounted for 68% of employment. For maintenance technicians and supervisors, the composite tension indicator reached 9.4, among the highest levels recorded.
France Travail's workforce needs survey confirms this on the recruitment side: in 2025, 77.9% of planned hires for technicians and supervisors in general maintenance and industrial mechanics were rated difficult by employers [Source: France Travail, BMO 2025].
| Market signal | What the figures say |
|---|---|
| Recruitment tension | Tension indicator of 9.4 for maintenance in 2023 (DARES), among the highest |
| Hiring difficulty | 77.9% of planned hires rated difficult in general maintenance and industrial mechanics in 2025 (France Travail, BMO 2025) |
| Demographics | An ageing workforce and a retirement wave now starting |
The demographic wall: knowledge leaves with the people
The ageing of industrial workforces points to a wave of retirements over the coming years. Every departure takes away knowledge that was never written down: the practical touch, the quirks of a given machine, the exact order of a setting.
At Mimorian, what we see on the sites we support matches this picture. When the veterans go, undocumented knowledge goes with them, and the teams left behind start from further back than they realised.
The phenomenon reaches beyond France. In the United States, a study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute measured as early as 2018 that 89% of manufacturing executives recognised a talent shortage, and projected up to 2.4 million unfilled roles by 2028, representing $454 billion of value at risk [Source: Deloitte/Manufacturing Institute, 2018]. The exact figures vary from one country to another, the dynamic is the same.
Recruiting is no longer enough: knowledge has to stay
Training a maintenance technician takes years and costs a great deal. Replacing one who leaves does not restore the knowledge they had built up. Chasing recruitment on its own amounts to filling a leaking bucket.
The real answer lies elsewhere: making sure knowledge stays in the plant, independently of individuals. Capturing experience at every intervention, while the expert is still there, rather than arranging a last-minute handover on the day they leave.
That is what Mimorian does. Every intervention enriches the plant's memory. The expert's knowledge stays available, credited to them by name, and serves the people arriving. Departures stop being losses of skill and become handovers.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Which maintenance roles are most affected?
A: Technicians in electrical maintenance, electronics and automation are among the most sought after, with hires rated very difficult by industrial employers.
Q: Is hiring more people enough to solve the problem?
A: Only in part. Without knowledge transfer, every departure recreates the same gap. Recruitment addresses headcount, not the loss of skill.
Q: How can an expert's knowledge be kept before they leave?
A: By capturing it at every intervention, as work happens, rather than attempting a rushed handover at the last moment, when little time is left to pass everything on.
Conclusion
Three points to take away.
- The strain is structural: maintenance ranks lastingly among the hardest industrial roles to fill in France.
- Knowledge leaves faster than people: every retirement takes years of undocumented experience with it.
- Keeping beats hiring on repeat: capturing experience protects the plant from turnover it did not choose.
Next step for a site director: identify the critical equipment whose know-how rests on a single person, before that person leaves.
To go further, read our full guide: Capitalisation du savoir-faire en maintenance industrielle.