Salaries for new posts in NI rise, but no increase for those staying in their jobs
NORTHERN Ireland has enjoyed the highest percentage salary increases of any UK region with pay packets for advertised roles up 8.8%, according to research revealed today.
But for those who are not moving into new posts, separate findings suggest real wages will stagnate in the year ahead.
Website Adzuna said advertised salaries posted a year-onyear increase of 1.2%, bringing the average advertised wage to £32,598 in the UK. But Northern Ireland led the way in the regions, with increases of 8.8% to £31,209.
Last year’s figure was £28,696 — down 0.5% year-on-year.
The increase placed us at two in the rankings for salary size among the 12 UK regions.
Local firms were offering better pay packets for new jobs than their counterparts in Scotland, south east England, south west England, Wales, West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Only London, where average advertised pay was £39,457, offered better wages for new posts.
Adzuna said the province was setting the pace on a regional basis with the high rate of increase.
The next fastest rate of growth was in Wales at 2.9%, followed by West Midlands at 2.4%.
East Midlands, London and north west England all tied with 2.2%.
And overall, it was the first year-on-year increase for UK advertised salaries, Adzuna.co.uk said.
However, while salaries were increasing for those in newly-created jobs, the increases were not filtering through to people who were not moving on.
A spokesman for Adzuna said: “With this in mind, employers may also have to consider in- creasing salary packages to not only attract fresh blood, but also to retain top talent.”
Meanwhile, an economic think-tank has warned that Britain’s workers are facing the prospect of another year without a pay rise. In its latest analysis, the Resolution Foundation (RF) said it was expecting zero growth in real wages over the course of 2018 as a whole.
While the pay squeeze which saw real wages fall back in 2017 is set to come to an end, it said that a “noticeable” year-on-year rise in real pay was not now forecast until December 2018.
Real pay remains £15-a-week below its peak before the global financial crash of 2008 and is not expected to recover to its pre-crisis levels until 2025.
The RF said its gloomy outlook was shared by the public with more than half expecting their pay to remain the same or fall over the next 12 months if they stay in the same job, according to recent data from the Bank of England. Just one in seven said they were expecting a rise, while around a quarter of households expect their financial situation to worsen over the course of the year, roughly the same proportion as those who believe it will get better.
The report does highlight some grounds for optimism with the lowest paid workers set for a 4.3% rise in April as the national living wage reaches £7.83.
It said that a “surprisingly large” fall in hours worked this autumn also implied a pick-up in productivity growth in the three months to October, the strongest it has been since the end of 2005, potentially heralding pay rises in the future.
RF director Torsten Bell said: “2017 was a tough year for living standards as the pay squeeze returned. The good news is that things will get better next year. The bad news is we may only go from backwards to standing still, with prospects for a meaningful pay recovery still out of sight.
“While the public have famously defied recent gloomy economic predictions and continued to spend, public expectations do appear to be moving in line with experts’ pessimistic predictions.
“This pessimism is strongest among those on lower incomes.”