UK professionals enjoy up to 2 digit salary growth, says study

Professionals are seeing salaries increase and candidates are more confident in their job prospects, Hays has found.

It’s well known that the UK’s employment landscape is gathering steam. New figures from recruitment firm Hays indicate that confidence among candidates is growing in an improving job market.

Just over six out of ten employees surveyed for the UK Salary and Recruiting Trends report said they planned to move jobs in the next 12 months, and 38 per cent were even planning to move in the next six months.

Increasing numbers of employees are sensing that new opportunities are out there, and they’re starting to consider their options and seek new roles elsewhere.

For companies, an upswing in staff turnover could make it difficult to support their growth intentions. However, they are planning to take on new staff who will help to fill those voids – seven out of ten employers plan to increase their headcount in the next year. A third were expecting to hire more temporary, contract or interim workers, but 62 per cent intended to commit to taking on new permanent staff.

For 27 per cent of employees, a bigger salary was the main reason they wanted to find a new role. That may not be surprising given that wages have remained sluggish in the past few months.

With average wage increases at just 1.8 per cent in the UK, it may be difficult to achieve – unless the candidates have the right skills and experience to fulfil those market needs.

In fact, Hays says the headline figure obscures the fact that some qualified, professional and skills workers actually saw their wages increase by as much as ten per cent.

Barney Ely, director at Hays Human Resources, says that skills shortages have been behind the “definite pockets” of large pay rises in the UK.

“To date the greatest salary increases have been highest in sectors suffering from skill shortages where there simply aren’t enough people to fill the gaps,” he explained.

“IT, finance, engineering and construction are all prime areas where jobseekers often have the pick of two or three jobs, they get snapped up quickly by employers and they often receive a counter offer from their current employer, which can push their salary up even further.”