Member Article

Yorkshire wages up 12% - second highest growth in the UK

The average salary in Yorkshire and The Humber grew 12.3% in the past year according to research from job search engine Adzuna.

An average wage in the region hit £30,691, however this was was the 6th lowest out of 8 regions.

Salaries are rising more quickly in the North than in the South according to the firm.

By region, the North East leads annual salary improvement, with a 13.7% average increase compared to December last year, closely followed by Yorkshire and The Humber (12.3%), while the North West (10.3%) manages to keep up with the rest of the pack, remaining comfortably ahead of the UK average (6.9%).

Salaries in the South East lag behind at 7.7%, while London salary growth falls below the UK average with a year-on-year increase of just 6.6%.

At £34,548, the average UK advertised salary in December was actually £1 lower than November’s £34,549.

In better nationwide news, competition for jobs halved over 2014 to hit a new record low of 0.85 jobseekers for every advertised vacancy in December, according to the latest UK Job Market Report from Adzuna.co.uk.

The number of jobseekers going after each advertised role has nearly halved by comparison to December 2013, when there were 1.61 jobseekers per position.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of Adzuna, comments: “Individual cities can’t be taken blindly as representatives for entire regions – but they are useful indicators. An advertised salary increase can often mean that employers are struggling to fill positions from their local talent pool.

“By raising advertised salaries, they hope to attract better qualified candidates from other regions.

“Combined with the high competition for jobs we’re seeing in the North, a logical explanation is that employers are struggling to fill positions due to a lack of skills applicable to the sectors thriving there.

“David Cameron has made funding for apprenticeships a core part of his re-election campaign, and the figures bear this out as a sensible tonic for employment – especially in the North.

“Hopefully this proactive response to a clear mismatch in the UK employment market manages to transcend party lines in time for the general election.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .