A recent report into the UK jobs market has revealed that after 3 consecutive months of stagnation, the average salary for advertised jobs in the UK increased slightly over the course of January.

Naturally this is good news, but the figures released continue to describe mixed fortunes for the UK’s job market as a whole, with vast inequalities in respect to earnings and geographical location.

The report caps off a period when wages had been consistently flat-lining, but comes at the end of a year, when most of the UK has experienced quite significant increases in the average salaries for advertised roles.

It highlights the areas which have seen both the highest and lowest level of salary increases in the UK between January 2014 and the same time 2015, but these are not necessarily distributed in the way that you might expect.

Rather surprisingly the North East of England came out on top with +14%, followed closely by Yorkshire and Humber with +13.5%.  London finds itself far down the list in terms of wage increases with a figure of +8.7%, lagging many other areas including North West England 9.4% and the East Midlands 10.3%.

North East England 14.0%

Yorkshire and the Humber 13.5%

Eastern England 12.4%

South West England 11.7%

West Midlands 10.7%

East Midlands 10.3%

North West England 9.4%

South East England 8.7%

London 6.9%

Northern Ireland 5.8%

Scotland 2.0%

Wales 1.7%

UK 9.2%

These surprisingly positive figures do however belie a substantial inequality in the level of average salaries for advertised positions, between different geographical regions in the UK.

Not surprisingly the highest salaries are found in the London area, with the average topping out at just over £42,000; this is a full £8000 higher than the UK average of £34,000.  Next in line is Scotland with £33,000, followed by South East England at £32,800.  Lagging far behind in terms of advertised salaries is Northern Ireland, which despite posting a healthy increase of 5.8% on the previous year, remains bottom of the list with £29,700, but clipping the heels of Wales which saw just a 1.7 % increase to £29,000.

Below is the full list of average advertised salaries and their respective % increase for the year January 2014 to January 2015. It’s very interesting to note how significantly skewed the UK average of £34,580 has been by the London figures; not one of the other regions has exceeded, or even matched this figure.

London £42,008  6.9%  

Scotland £33,254  2.0%

South East England £32,786  8.7%

Eastern England £32,469  12.4%

North West England £32,067  9.4%

Yorkshire and the Humber £31,789  13.5%

West Midlands £31,463  10.7%

South West England £30,816  11.7%

North East England £30,658  14.0%

East Midlands £30,637  10.3%

Wales £29,942  1.7%

Northern Ireland £29,766  5.8%

UK Average £34,589 9.2%

Of course a word of caution is needed against interpreting these figures too literally.  We must remember that they are a measure of average advertised salaries rather than average actual salaries.

Having said this they do give us a fair indication of the level of wages expected within certain areas, which in turn gives us a very real sense of the health of the local job market.

It will be interesting to see how this leader board might change, should the trends identified this year continue for a further 12 months.

We recently discussed the best and worst places in the UK in which to find a job, which alsoe makes for interesting reading.