Salaries are predicted to increase by 3 per cent in 2020 after two years of pay freezes, showing that Brexit concerns may be reducing.
This is according to a Robert Walters report “Salary Survey 2020”, which shows that this pay rise will be greater than inflation next year set to be at 1.94 per cent. London will experience the slowest growth in salaries at 2.15 per cent, whereas white collar workers in the Midlands will see a +4.46 per cent increase.
Those in HR, banking, and logistics salary will remain roughly the same, receiving at most a 1-2 per cent increase in pay. Those in legal, marketing, procurement, accounting, finance and tech-based roles will see their pay increase above the national average.
Contractors in procurement will see a day-rate increase of 8 per cent, supply chain 5 per cent and marketing 4 per cent. Contractors in HR, banking and logistics will be receiving the lowest pay rise in 2020.
Chris Hickey, UK CEO at Robert Walters said:
While the UK was defined by a year of political and economic instability due to Brexit, the hiring market performed better than anticipated.
There were pockets of hiring activity within sectors that received notable venture capital (VC) funding such as technology and fintech. Other areas of positive recruitment in 2019 were property, professional services and specific areas within banking such as hedge funds performed better than anticipated.
The nearshoring of roles – in particular back-office and operations – to other regions in the UK (the Midlands) is something that has been on the agenda for some time and in fact is not Brexit related, but is a decision based on cost-saving. From a London perspective, nearshoring has had more of a significant impact on hiring activity than Brexit.
What the data in the Robert Walters salary survey highlights is that the UK will continue to be a global hub for professional services – from legal, HR, accounting, marketing, tech and business support – the UK continues to have some of the best skilled talent in the world.
Robert Walters believes there are three sectors to watch out for next year, that will drive the hiring agenda by “recruiting agile”. They are Educational technology (Edtech), Fintech and Agriculture technology (Agritech).
This report was put together by reviewing 100,000 job roles and the views of 9,000 UK employees.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
