Thu, 28 Jun 2012

Permanent salaries were up by 1.5% across the UK in 2011, although London and the South-East is faring much better than other regions overall, and contractors were the big winners.

These are the findings of recruiter Robert Walters’ 2012 Salary Survey, which tracked the salary of every role it recruited for in 2011 across its disciplines.

Contractor rates were up 3.7%, and in London by 4.3%.

The regional split continued as permanent pay rose 1.8% in London and 2.4% in the Thames Valley and the South-East, but just 0.8% in the Midlands and 0.4% in the North.

Within London, investment management operations was the only sub-sector to see permanent pay drop by more than 1%, at -1.4%, while risk and quant [quantitative analyst] pay was down 0.6% and sales salaries static at 0%.

Meanwhile, risk and quant contractor rates in London saw the biggest rise of any role at 13.8%, while investment management operations contractor rates grew more modestly at 1.9%.

HR was the only sector to see contractor rates drop, by 4.3%.

Chris Hickey, managing director of UK recruitment at Robert Walters, says: “The fact that contract rates have grown almost two-and-a-half times as fast as permanent salaries over the past year highlights where businesses’ priorities lie at the moment.

“Employers are focusing on projects that maximise efficiencies or work they consider business critical and are prepared to pay in order to secure the best contractors to complete these tasks.”