The latest data from ABN Resource’s Lubricants Talent Report 2026 reveal a workforce that values the lubricants industry, worries about the knowledge leaving with its most experienced professionals, and is increasingly passive in its approach to career change.
At first sight, the lubricants talent market appears reassuring in 2026. Job satisfaction remains relatively high. Salary increases have recovered slightly. Active job seeking has fallen to its lowest level in the past five editions of the ABN Resource’s Lubricants Talent Report.
However, the same data show that over half of respondents are passively open to a new opportunity, despite not actively looking for one. Almost six out of 10 respondents feel underpaid. Management and leadership receive the lowest satisfaction rating of the five job dimensions assessed. Meanwhile, 61% of respondents say their organization is unprepared or only minimally prepared for the knowledge transfer challenge lying ahead.
ABN conducted this year’s survey by inviting participants through industry networks including Lubes’n’Greases, the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association and the United Kingdom Lubricant Association. A total of 493 individuals completed the survey. The headline for 2026? A stable workforce facing change.
Stability Hides Workforce Mobility
Active job seeking may be at its lowest in several years, falling to 17% in 2026 from a peak of 37% in 2023, but openness to changing jobs remains high. More than half of this year’s respondents — 51% — would still consider the right opportunity, taking the overall share willing to make a move to 68%. The accessible talent pool is therefore broader than the visible job market suggests, and reaching it requires employers to engage professionals before they start actively searching.
This has important implications for recruitment. Since the majority of accessible talent sits outside the active candidate market, effective recruitment in 2026 increasingly relies on direct search, professional networks, and thoughtful, personalized candidate engagement. It also highlights a retention risk. Low turnover can coexist with a workforce that is highly open to opportunity. Satisfied employees may still be receptive when a compelling opportunity reaches them.
Pay adds another layer. Sixty percent of respondents received a pay rise in 2026, with an average increase of 10%. Nevertheless, 58% still consider themselves underpaid. Higher pay may ease immediate pressure without changing how professionals compare their remuneration with their responsibilities, market value or external opportunities.
This disconnect also raises further questions. Were employees hugely underpaid before so that a 10% raise does not make a big enough impact? Are employee expectations about pay realistic? Are economic pressures having an impact on how far earnings go in real life?
Rewarding Sector with Visibility Problem
People, relationships and community emerged as the most valued aspects of working in the lubricants industry, accounting for almost one-third of substantive comments. Respondents mentioned trusted networks, knowledgeable colleagues and relationships developed over the years. They also pointed to the satisfaction of solving real customer problems, gaining experience through chemistry and engineering, working across a wide variety of industries, and building expertise throughout their careers. The quantitative results reinforce this picture, too. The nature of the work was the highest-rated aspect of the job this year, perceived as positive by 77% of respondents.
Lubricant professionals describe a sector that is technical, practical, international and built on trust. Yet outside the industry itself, much of that attractiveness is not easily seen. Fifty-seven percent of respondents identify low visibility and awareness as a barrier to attracting new people. Others point to unclear career pathways and negative perceptions of the industry’s future.
Closing the gap between what the lubricant industry offers and what prospective talent sees continues to be an important task.
Fear of Losing what is Valued
The 2026 survey reveals a growing fragility around the knowledge, relationships and experience that have traditionally defined the sector. Respondents point to experienced specialists leaving without passing on what they know, leading to weakened technical support and reduced customer education. Increasingly, respondents indicated, new hires are becoming familiar with sales processes without gaining enough lubrication fundamentals behind them. Respondent concerns extend beyond replacing headcount, focusing more closely on how to retain the knowledge, experience and judgment that allow professionals to make decisions, solve problems and support customers with confidence.
The workforce profile makes these concerns more immediate. The average respondent has 25 years of industry experience, and 42% of respondents were aged 55 or over. On retirement readiness, only 6% report that their organization is very well prepared, with strong succession planning and knowledge transfer systems already in place.
Succession planning does not have to be complicated to be effective. It simply requires priority, careful planning, clear ownership and enough time for knowledge to pass from one generation to the next.
Career Progression Needs Broader Definition
Career progression is emerging as one of the clearest pressure points in the talent market. Satisfaction with a current role may encourage people to stay, but for those still building their careers, the strength of the next opportunity can matter just as much.
This is particularly evident among professionals in the early and middle stages of their careers. The data show that this demographic is much more willing to change jobs and that it places a stronger emphasis on pay, promotion and career development. The age group between 35 and 44 years provides one of the clearest indications in this regard: 88% are open to taking up a new position, 67% would be motivated by better pay, and 52% would be motivated by promotion.
Advancement in one’s career, however, is met with mixed opinions. Thirty percent of respondents consider the opportunities to be excellent or very good, whereas 43% rate them as fair or poor. This difference is considerable for an industry attempting to retain the next generation of both technical and commercial leaders, and it places greater emphasis on how progression is defined.
The challenge for employers is to create career paths that reflect how value is actually built in the business. Sometimes that means leadership. Sometimes it means deeper expertise, broader influence or greater commercial responsibility. The more clearly those routes are defined, the easier it becomes for talented people to picture a future without having to leave to find one.
Talent Risk Becoming Easier to Overlook
Given the operating environment facing the lubricants industry in 2026, it is hardly surprising that geopolitical tension, supply disruption and price volatility dominate the industry’s challenge agenda.
Yet some of the risks receiving less attention may prove the most difficult to reverse. Decades of technical know-how, business intuition and customer trust reside within an aging workforce, while not enough new people are entering the sector and developing the expertise needed to replace those leaving. Although the pressure may seem remote, the time available to pass on knowledge, develop leaders and establish credible careers is already being shortened.
The 2026 workforce is experienced, dedicated and proud of the industry. It is also listening, comparing and approaching a significant generational transfer of knowledge. That combination makes talent risk quieter than some of the industry’s more immediate pressures but no less important to its future wellbeing and growth.
Download the full Lubricants Talent Report 2026 from ABN Resource for the complete findings, analysis, and recommendations at
www.abnresource.com/talentreport26/
Ewa Ozga is marketing manager for ABN Resource, a recruitment agency in Leeds, United Kingdom, specializing in executive recruitment for the lubricant, oil and fuels industries.