Workers with better than average skills are being paid off by bosses desperate to keep them.
Recruitment outfit, Kelly Services claim that skills shortages are putting the squeeze on wage pressure; a finding supported by recent figures released by the Office of National Statistics which show that the current state of the labour market is breeding inflationary pressures.
According to their third annual salary survey, while pay gradually increased last year, figures reveal a growing gap between bottom and top end rates.
The trend, they say, is expected to increase throughout the new year.
Steve Girdler, Marketing Director of Kelly Services said: “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.”
Pay gaps are also growing within job roles.
Kelly Services say that a PA/Secretary working in the City could earn anywhere between £20,000 and £32,500 – a 62% difference.
Regional pay differentials also exist.
The South, South East and London regions still offer the best pay rates in the country. Pay in Wales is at the lower end of the scale for traditional office based roles such as PA’s and secretaries, yet demand in the region for warehouse operatives is so high that they enjoy pay above the national average.
Similarly, pay in the South West is well below the national average across most of the jobs researched. However, the large number of contact centres in the region means that call centre advisers in the South West receive the highest pay outside London and the South East.
Within regions, pay also varies substantially from location to location. The Midlands, Derby, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and Wolverhampton all offer reasonably similar pay across the 13 jobs researched. Yet employers in Birmingham pay their staff on average around 9% more than those in the rest of the region.
Official statistics out last week show that the labour market is tightening. Despite high employment (working numbers increased by 99,000 over the last quarter) unemployment has swelled by 13,000 to reach 1.40 million and the number of unfilled vacancies is up by 4,400 on the previous quarter.
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