placeholder
Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

A pay rise for those pulling the pints this Christmas

Hospitality & Catering industry shows high salary growth with 4.4% y-o-y increase

  • Advertised salaries have finally stopped falling, ending their continuous slide since April, and just in time for Christmas
  • Vacancies have continued to fall, now sitting at 1,117,683 - a 0.4% month-on-month decrease, as Brexit nerves continue to impact hiring

The latest monthly report from job search engine Adzuna.co.uk reveals that the Hospitality & Catering industry has seen some of the highest levels of salary growth across the UK with 4.4% year-on-year increase. A payrise for those pulling the pints this Christmas is no doubt a welcome gift – considering the industry’s role in aiding merriment this festive period. Combined with an ONS report which shows the number of pub jobs is growing this should give people in the service industry a positive outlook heading into the bustling season.

In the same vain, the Teaching, Creative & Design, Admin, and Legal industries have seen some of the highest annual rises in salaries year-on-year. In contrast, Science and Quality Assurance jobs fight it out with Domestic and Cleaning jobs for biggest salary decreases, with each industry seeing a -3.9% and -7.2% decline in salaries year-on-year respectively.

Looking more generally, for the first time in six months the UK has seen a rise in advertised salaries. Coming just in time for Christmas, the slow slide has finally been halted, with average advertised vacancies seeing a miniscule £9 salary rise.

Table 1: Total advertised vacancies and salaries

 

October 2018

September 2018

Monthly

Change

Annual change from November 2017

UK Vacancies

1,117,683

1,121,754

-0.4%

-2.6%

Jobseekers per Vacancy

0.32

0.34

-6.3%

-22.0%

Av. Advertised UK Salary

£33,424

£33,415

0.0%

+3.9%


After several months of declining numbers of vacancies this is now levelling out in the run-up to Christmas. The report details that whilst Brexit continues to impact nerves around hiring the 0.4% month-on-month decline in October has slowed from 1.4% in September, and is a slight improvement on the year-on-year difference: with it rising from -3.6% in September to -2.6% in October.

Elsewhere, Wales is the only region in the report’s measurement to have seen a small decrease in advertised salaries over the past 12 months. This is in contrasting fortunes to neighbouring South West England, which is among the pack leaders, sledging ahead with 8.9% year-on-year salary increases. Northern Ireland meanwhile sees double digit growth.

Andrew Hunter, co-founder of job search engine Adzuna, commented:

“It’s pleasing to see tireless bar staff and waitresses receiving a jolly bump to their wages, just in time for the busy period. Hopefully this will be some consolation for all the terrible festive jokes and loud behaviour acted out at Christmas work dos up and down the country over the next few weeks.

“Looking more generally it’s hopeful that real wages are on the way back up after months of decline. Whilst overall salaries are up 3.9% year-on-year, we had expected to see more robust growth, but have our fingers crossed that this will be a springboard to build upon as we move into 2019.”