London salaries hit but regional pay is faring better
Average London wages have dived more than 3.9 per cent in the past year, a greater rate than any other part of the UK, according to data from Adzuna, the jobs aggregation website.
Year-on-year salaries across the UK stand at 3.1 per cent lower than last January, at £33,323.
Becky Barr, Adzuna research manager, said: “Salaries have been going down for eight months but last month in December, wages went up for the first time. Arguably, this could be a sign of employers showing the confidence to nudge pay up a bit as they invest in their teams.
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“We could also be seeing lower paid seasonal temporary jobs tail off, following the end of Christmas. In this case, we may be seeing average salaries rise due to lower salaried jobs being taken out of the market,” she added.
However, James Hick, UK managing director of Manpower Group Solutions said: “The decline in London salaries may well be thanks to the pressure we are seeing in financial services with fewer high paid jobs in banking on offer, rather than like-for-like salaries trending downwards.”
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The latest Job Market Report from Adzuna showed that the total number of advertised vacancies fell by 4.8 per cent to 1,109,511 in December – ending three months of growth. Meanwhile, advertised average salaries nationally rose 0.3 per cent from November, to £32,323.
Adzuna co-founder Doug Monro said: “Despite total advertised vacancies falling slightly as companies pause for breath before renewed recruitment pushes in January, salaries have finally begun to trend upwards… It is a solid indication that the market is adapting and continuing to evolve.”