Back in April, we wrote an Advantage Home Construction Insurance blog about how the average rate of pay for freelancers in the construction industry is on the rise, and building upon that general trend, this week it was revealed that construction salaries are up by 9%.

As reported by Construction Index: Data compiled by recruitment agency Randstad Construction, Property & Engineering from almost 6,800 permanent placed construction jobs shows that salaries across the sector rose by 9% in the 12 months to 31st May 2019, despite a drop in the number of vacancies being advertised. Average pay rose from £42,300 a year ago to £45,900 today.

Pay in site management has risen 3%, with average asking salaries rising from £47,100 a year to £48,500 in the 12 months to 31st May. Randstad’s data shows assistant site managers earning £37,600 per year with the highest-flying candidates being offered £48,500 a year in London.

Site managers have seen their pay rise 3% to an average of £50,500, up from £48,800 the previous year. Average salaries are higher in London, currently sitting at £53,400. One senior site manager, a role now typically commanding a salary of £62,900 a year, is now commanding a rate of £78,000 a year on a job in Welwyn Garden City.

Maintenance engineers have seen their salaries rise by 5%, from £31,800 to £33,500. According to Randstad, some maintenance engineers in London have recently secured starting salaries of £47,500 over the course of the last 12 months. A similar situation is developing in project management where average pay has risen 8%, from £59,500 to £64,200. Pay for senior project managers has risen by 7% from £75,700 to £80,800.

Site engineers have seen pay rise even further. Average asking salaries have risen by 19%, from £37,100 to £44,300 a year – with the highest paid site engineers in the capital getting up to £68,700.

As we’ve previously noted in recent Advantage Home Construction Insurance blogs, wage rises are believed to be driven by demand (with a construction boom continuing in the regions) and increased difficulty in attracting European construction workers due to Brexit-related uncertainty.

At the risk of stating the obvious, we feel that although the salary hike for employees within the construction sector is undeniably good news for workers, it does potentially pose challenges for the construction industry as a whole if rapid wage rises continue.

We’ll be back soon with more news and views from Advantage Home Construction Insurance, and will continue to monitor opportunities and salaries within the construction sector. In the meantime, thank you for reading!