Recruiter is joining forces with the recruitment industry's trade body and a UK top 20 accountancy firm on a major salary survey of recruitment consultants and managers.

The survey, to be conducted by BMG Research, will cover salaries and benefits across five of the UK's largest recruitment sectors: IT, finance, office, healthcare and industrial.

Key results of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation/Recruiter 2006 Salary Survey in association with Saffery Champness will be published in the magazine's 23 August issue. The full results will be published separately by the REC.

"We're very pleased to be working with the REC and Saffery Champness on this project," says Recruiter editor DeeDee Doke. "This salary survey is our first involvement in a significant piece of independent research, and we expect it to be just the beginning of such projects for us, as the magazine continues to develop."

"Seeking robust research on salaries and benefits in recruitment has been like chasing the Holy Grail," says Roger Tweedy, the REC's director of research. "Every year, businesses large and small suffer from the lack of credible benchmark data against which to peg salaries and benefits."

"The REC is delighted to be working with Recruiter and Saffery Champness to provide this valuable information for the first time. I'm sure the results will be of interest to everyone in the industry."

Martin Holden, head of professional and consultancy services at Saffery Champness, says: "I have no doubt that the results of this research project will be of practical use and of great interest to practitioners within the industry, and for that reason it is very satisfying to be involved alongside Recruiter and the REC."

Holden adds: "As accountants and business advisers to the recruitment sector, the results and analysis arising from the research will be of significant use to us in helping confirm current trends that we are seeing in the marketplace."

He adds the survey will "help us prepare and advise our clients for the challenges of an industry that is in many ways a benchmark for the UK economy."

Tweedy urges anyone approached to take part in the survey to do so. Participants' details will be kept completely confidential.