The survey, from talent management consultancy Ochre House, highlights the need for talent despite the economic downturn.
Damien Stork, director at Ochre House, believes the sector needs a "radical overhaul in recruitment and development practices". He said: "The sector faces an immediate problem because the general climate of uncertainty means many of the brightest and best engineers are simply not moving at the moment. This has made the short-term shortage of engineering specialists even more acute."
He added: "Instead of just reaching out to the engineering community when they have a specific role to fill, recruiters need to be building long-term relationships based on advice, information and technical knowledge. That means serious use of tools such as networking sites, online forums and blogs.
"This in turn offers the chance to build internal and external pipelines of talent that could largely eliminate the problems employers face now."
