Skills Shortages Push Up Wages

– Salary Survey Highlights Varied Pay Across UK

Kelly Services has launched its third annual salary survey. Whilst pay increased generally in 2004, the figures reveal that there is a growing gap between bottom and top end rates.

As UK business confidence continues to rise skills shortages are being created and as a result employers are providing greater rewards for staff with better than average skills and experience.

This trend is expected to continue into 2005, as the pool of available skilled staff will remain limited due to low unemployment and an ageing population.

A PA/Secretary in the City of London, for example, can earn anywhere between GBP20,000 at the low end to GBP32,500 at the high end – a substantial, 62% difference. The growing gap between bottom and top end pay has developed in an environment where businesses have to compete on salaries to recruit and retain the best staff.

Unsurprisingly, there are still major pay differences from region to region. The South, South East and London regions still offer the best pay rates in the country. This reflects a continued strong demand for staff and higher costs of living in these areas. There are, however, interesting pay differences across job types and even within regions.

Steve Girdler, Marketing Director of Kelly Services, said, "This research provides UK managers and recruiters with a number of key indicators regarding the current employment market enabling them to take an informed view of their overall staffing strategies. Employees and job seekers will be interested in the results as it gives them an idea of what others in the same area, working in similar roles, are being paid and they can adjust their expectations accordingly. They can see if the grass is really greener on the other side."

"As we predicted in last year’s report, the UK job market continued to strengthen in 2004 as demand for both temporary and permanent staff increased. Inevitably, this heightened competition for good calibre staff and we expect demand for the best staff to continue rising throughout 2005. Employers, who wish to attract the best recruits, need to ensure that their financial rewards are competitive but they also need to look beyond pay to develop strategies that address the impact of upcoming employment legislation and the UK’s changing demographic profile. As a leading global and national staffing company with customers ranging from multi-nationals to local businesses, we at Kelly are well placed to help all types of companies with their recruitment challenges."

The survey has been compiled from information collected through Kelly’s network of 120 offices. It contains permanent salary information on 13 job types across 11 regions in the UK as well as investigating salary levels in the Engineering, Automotive, Science, Accountancy and Finance industries. In addition, Kelly has also collected data on hourly rates for temporary staff fulfilling the same jobs. Each week Kelly fills between 17,000 and 20,000 vacancies.

Source: Kelly 27 Jan 2005