One in eight British jobs pay over £50k – but only 5% of candidates want them

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A growing number of positions (12.5 percent) of jobs in the UK are paying over £50,000, yet surprisingly, just five percent of candidates are daring to seek higher salaries, research by CV-Library has revealed, suggesting a lack of self-belief in the British workforce.

Comparable candidate data revealed that of the millions of professionals looking for new roles between Nov 14-Oct 15, just five percent of them were hoping to achieve a salary of over £50,000.

The job site looked at roles advertised between the 1st of November 2014 to the 31st of October 2015. The data revealed that over 189,000 of the 1.5 million jobs offered a salary of over £50,000. Furthermore, data from the same period the previous year revealed that 12 percent of jobs payed over £50,000, suggesting a small advance in the number of high-paid roles in Britain.

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“Whilst many roles are experiencing slight declines in salary, we are seeing small increases for management level jobs. Difficulties finding the right talent have attributed to this,” commented Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library.

“The fact that only one in 20 job hunters are seeking a salary over £50,000 prompts concerns over potential skills shortages in the future. However, given that there are high-paying jobs available and few candidates applying to these vacancies, there’s a more immediate concern over the lack of self-belief among UK workers,” Biggins concluded.

Robert joined the HRreview editorial team in October 2015. After graduating from the University of Salford in 2009 with a BA in Politics, Robert has spent several years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past he has been part of editorial teams at Flux Magazine, Mondo*Arc Magazine and The Marine Professional.

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