The average salary across the UK has reached a five-year high, just shy of £40,000 in the first half of 2019, however, this may be because businesses across the UK are increasing pay because they are struggling to fill roles.
CV-Library, has found that the average UK salary has reached £36,493. When comparing pay increases between 2016 and 2019, it was found that the biggest pay rises were in agriculture (23 per cent), recruitment (18.3 per cent), legal (13.7 per cent) and hospitality (13 per cent).
The amount of jobs advertised during the first half of the year has also risen by just under a third (30 per cent). Engineering saw 27 per cent more jobs advertised, as well as 21 per cent more construction jobs and 24 per cent more IT jobs.
Still, at the same time the number of applications have fallen by 7.5 per cent since 2016, with agriculture applicants being down 35 per cent, customer service 32 per cent and hospitality 30 per cent.
John Salt, managing director of CV-Library, said:
The fact that there are more jobs on offer is certainly positive, however, a huge amount of these are being left unfilled because Brits are too afraid to change roles right now. On top of this, the industries that have seen the highest increase in vacancies are the ones that are struggling with Brexit uncertainty the most, particularly because of a distinct shortage of EU talent.
As a result, organisations have had no choice but to push up pay in a bid to entice professionals out of their current roles. Unfortunately, it appears that these efforts aren’t paying off and if the government does not focus on boosting the UK economy, we may well see a high number of UK companies reach breaking point in the next six months.
The CV-Library analysed job market data between 1st January and the 30th June 2019.
Average salary in the UK between 1 January and 30 June:
- 2019 – £36,934
- 2018 – £33,361
- 2017 – £33,346
- 2016 – £32,663
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.
