Despite COVID-19 negatively affecting the job market, average pay has risen year-on-year.
This is according to CV-Library, which found that average pay rose by 5.7 per cent year-on-year from £34,956 in July 2019 to £36,958 in July 2020. Still, industries hit particularly bad by the pandemic did experience a drop in average salaries, such as leisure/tourism (down 7 per cent), catering (down 6 per cent), charity (down 5 per cent), hospitality (down 5 per cent) and media (down 3 per cent).
The job board also found that the number of jobs being advertised in July 2020 fell by 47 per cent compared to 2019. Still, compared to June 2020, there were 32 per cent more vacancies.
The UK cities which saw the biggest drop in job ads were Aberdeen (down 74 per cent), Glasgow (down 58 per cent), Portsmouth (down 55 per cent), Bristol (down 55 per cent) and Leeds (down 52 per cent). The most competitive locations to find a new job seems to be Northern Ireland, which saw applications to job ratio increase by 153 per cent, the South East by 152 per cent, the South West by 149 per cent, the East Midlands by 102 per cent.
Lee Biggins, founder and CEO of CV-Library, said:
Demand for jobs is still outstripping supply and this will be a trend that we’ll continue to see for some time. Naturally, the summer months tend to be a quieter time for both recruitment and job searching. However, the fact that our economy is struggling means there are less opportunities up for grabs than normal and more people looking for work; not an ideal combination. At the same time, certain industries and locations have been hit harder than others and this may worsen if there are more local lockdowns like we’re seeing in the North.
While it’s a promising sign that salaries are higher than they were a year ago, the month-on-month dip in pay for new jobs does suggest that companies are starting to make difficult decisions about their workforce. Candidates may well expect to take a pay cut during an economic downturn, but be prepared to have difficult conversations with applicants who may be expecting more than you can offer right now.
CV-Library gathered these results by analysing data from its site throughout the month of July 2020 and compared the findings with data from July 2019 and June 2020.
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.
