According to the latest data from Adzuna, a job matching platform in the UK, the average annual salary advertised in the UK reached a record-high in January.
It found that the average salary increased by 1.45% per month and by 7.02% in comparison to January 2024. This was mainly due to salary increases in the manufacturing and maintenance industries.
In January, the average salary advertised was PS40 486, and wages in both private and public sectors grew by 6.2% per year. Adzuna says that salaries have now outpaced inflation for nine consecutive months.
Maintenance salaries increased by 2.24% per month and by almost a fifth on an annual basis. Manufacturing salaries rose by 2.35%, while manufacturing salaries rose by 10.35%.
The other sectors that saw significant annual growth included customer service (12.97%), domestic help and cleaning (11.75%) and logistics and warehouse (17.72%).
The number of job vacancies fell by 1.86% monthly and 4.49% yearly to 828.467 in January 20,25. This was the lowest figure for January since 2021.
Adzuna tracked vacancies in 27 different sectors. Twenty-one of them saw a monthly drop. Retail vacancies dropped by 16.23% after falling 19% in December.
The number of vacancies in the teaching sector increased by 33.9%. Other increases were seen in construction (up 22,9%), and legal (10.69%).
Adzuna discovered that the number per vacancy of job seekers rose from 1.81 in January 2020 to 2,09 in December 2024.
The legal sector took the shortest amount of time to fill vacancies, at just 31.4 days.
The longest time to fill domestic help and cleaning positions is 49.2days, followed by healthcare and nursing at more than 40days.
Employers continue to hide salaries, with only 46% of them disclosing their pay scales.
Northern Ireland saw the highest annual salary growth, increasing by 13.23%. London still has the highest regional average wage, but it is only PS46.923.
Andrew Hunter, Adzuna’s co-founder, stated that the salary increase “reflects an increasing competition for talent, even though overall hiring is slowing”.
He said that for jobseekers this meant adapting to an increasingly competitive environment, and for employers it meant attracting and retaining talented employees.
Adzuna figures confirm the findings of Indeed, which were released earlier this week. They showed that hiring demand was 15% lower than pre-pandemic levels in mid-February.
