It was a strong start to the year for both employers and professionals, and it’s clear that businesses were working hard last month to continue attracting talented engineering candidates. In fact, according to the latest statistics from CV-Library, the UK’s leading independent job site, advertised salaries for engineering roles increased by 3.6% month-on-month.
The data, which explored fluctuations in pay, jobs and applications throughout February, reveals that the sector also saw an increase in advertised salaries of 3.9%, when comparing year-on-year data. Some of the UK’s key industries witnessed above average salary growth last month, compared to data from January 2018. The top industries for pay hikes include:
- Hospitality – 6.5%
- Marketing – 4.6%
- Engineering – 3.6%
- Accounting – 2.6%
- Manufacturing – 1.3%
- IT – 1.3%
- Legal – 1.2%
- Recruitment – 1.1%
- Construction – 1.1%
- Catering – 0.5%
Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, comments on the findings: “It’s great to see that salaries are on the rise across the sector, especially given that pay declined in January. It’s particularly positive to see this growth in key industries, especially in sectors such as hospitality, engineering and manufacturing which continue to struggle with impending skills shortages.
“It’s clear that businesses are trying to keep the momentum going following the typical January hiring rush and that they’re working hard to keep attracting talented engineering candidates to their vacancies.”
The data reveals that engineering job vacancies were also up last month, rising by 7.5% year-on-year. That said, advertised vacancies were down by 11.8% month-on-month, as were applications, which saw a decline of 15.9% when compared with January 2018. This is not surprising given the time of year, though does confirm that both candidates and employers are slightly nervous in the current market.
Biggins concludes: “It’s positive to see that job vacancies saw a year-on-year increase across the engineering sector, as businesses remained confident in February. Despite both vacancies and applications declining month-on-month, this is not cause for concern. We typically see jobs and applications soar in January with both employers and job hunters starting the year on a high. As such, we expected to see these numbers decline slightly throughout February.”
Learn more about CV-Library at www.cv-library.co.uk
For more information on hiring in March, check out our latest report here.
