What will your maritime workforce look like in 2026, and are you ready for it?
That’s the question behind our new Maritime Workforce Forecast 2026: Building a Human-Plus Maritime Workforce in an AI World, a practical report for leaders and HR professionals who are serious about attracting, hiring, managing, rewarding and retaining maritime talent over the next two years.
Why we created the Maritime Workforce Forecast 2026
Across our surveys and conversations with maritime leaders, the same themes keep coming up:
Persistent skills shortages and high job-seeking intent in critical roles
Rising expectations around culture, flexibility, development and well-being
The rapid normalisation of AI and automation, useful, but raising big questions about skills and careers
Growing scrutiny on pay fairness and transparency, especially with new regulations on the horizon
Many leaders are experimenting with new workforce models and locations, while trying to protect succession pipelines and keep their best people engaged. Few feel they have a joined-up view of what the next two years really mean for their workforce.
This report is designed to help with exactly that.
What you’ll find inside the Maritime Workforce Forecast 2026
The Maritime Workforce Forecast 2026 brings together Faststream’s data, market insight and on-the-ground experience to set out what we expect to see across five core areas:
1. Attraction: competing for skills in a choice-rich market
We explore how to build an EVP that candidates believe once they join, how pay transparency is reshaping job adverts, and why framing roles around the skills people will build is becoming a differentiator – especially for those who want to stay valuable alongside AI.
2. Hiring: from filling roles to building capability
The report introduces the Build–Buy–Borrow–Bot playbook, a simple way to decide when to develop internal talent, hire externally, use contractors and fractional experts, or deploy AI and automation. It also looks at:
Selecting for learning agility, leadership potential and AI-readiness
Using AI in recruitment without losing the human judgement that still matters most
The role of job architecture in clearer, faster and fairer hiring decisions
3. Managing a global, blended workforce
Global hubs, remote specialists, EOR models, contractors and fractional experts are now part of everyday life in maritime. The Forecast examines:
How to decide where you employ people, and under which model
Managing fairness across locations, contracts and employment types
Keeping remote, EOR, and fractional people genuinely included and connected to your culture
4. Rewarding: strategic compensation in a transparent era
Reward is under more scrutiny than ever. With the EU Pay Transparency Directive due to be in place by June 2026, the report looks at how maritime employers can:
Balance internal equity with external competitiveness
Prepare for greater pay and gender gap transparency
Tackle the “loyalty penalty” where people who move employers gain significantly more than those who stay
5. Retaining and developing: protecting capability in a market of constant motion
High job-seeking intent, early-career churn and shifting expectations all create risk. We highlight:
Why “job hugging” (staying from fear, not fulfilment) is a fragile win
The rise of “quiet cracking” – silent disengagement that affects performance and safety
The value of a first five-year strategy for early-career talent
How well-being links directly to retention and operational risk
AI and the human-plus maritime workforce
One of the most important threads in the report is AI. Usage in maritime has already jumped, yet only a small minority of executives feel very confident in their AI strategy. Most are using AI to support decisions, rather than replace jobs, which opens up a crucial opportunity: the human-plus workforce.
The Forecast sets out how to:
Redesign entry-level work so people learn with AI, instead of losing core development experiences
Build AI literacy into leadership development
Avoid a “hollow middle” where mid-level roles – the traditional training ground for future leaders – quietly disappear
A practical checklist for maritime boards and HR leaders
The report includes a one-page leadership checklist you can use in board meetings and HR leadership sessions to RAG-rate where you stand on attraction, hiring, managing, reward, retention and AI. It is designed to help you:
Spot the biggest workforce risks and opportunities in the run-up to 2026
Agree on which issues to move from red to amber in the next 12–18 months
Assign clear ownership and turn discussion into action
Who should read it?
The Maritime Workforce Forecast 2026 is written for:
C-suite and senior leaders responsible for business strategy and growth
HR and people leaders overseeing global and regional workforces
Leaders of technical, commercial and shoreside functions
Anyone involved in workforce planning, talent strategy or reward in maritime and shipping
If you are asking how to compete for skills, keep critical people, handle pay transparency or introduce AI without weakening your future leadership bench, this report is for you.
The future maritime workforce will not happen to your organisation; it will be shaped by the decisions you make over the next two years.
Use it as a discussion paper with your leadership team, a checklist for your HR strategy, and a starting point to design a human-plus workforce that is ready for 2026 and beyond.
