The highly-regarded annual East Anglia-wide survey is compiled annually by independent Cooper Lomaz Recruitment, the largest specialist professional and technical recruiter in the East of England.
The average salary for Cambridge workers in professional and management roles is now £46,025. That compares with an average of £37,467 for the county of Cambridgeshire, £33,649 for Norfolk £33,177 for Suffolk, £35,213 for Essex.
The survey reveals that as business confidence builds, employers are battling to fill well-paying posts – with the number of candidates looking for work failing to keep pace with vacancies. Companies are having to work harder and smarter to recruit the right talent.
Cooper Lomaz has 19 – more than one in three – of its consultants exclusively engaged on servicing the needs of Cambridge clients in skilled, professional and management role market. It is anticipating a £17m turnover this year.
“Cambridge is remarkable. Its economy is amazing; it is doing so well – you can see that wherever you look,” said Operations Director Mark Fletcher. “Cambridge is a major player on the international stage. It has a level of innovation unmatched anywhere else in East Anglia, particularly in world-leading engineering, medical advances and scientific breakthroughs.
“There is a lot of interest in Cambridge from China. One of our bigger clients is a Chinese telecoms company. They are prepared to pay absolutely top dollar.”
Mr Fletcher said that while the salary survey showed the brakes are clearly coming off the East Anglian economy, the situation remains challenging for recruitment. In sector after sector the number of vacancies flooding onto the market outstrips the number of people seeking work.
“In some sectors the situation is now acute,” said Mr Fletcher. In IT and Sales & Marketing the number of candidates has decreased.
“2014 has seen a significant switch from an employer-led jobs market to a candidate-led one. Cooper Lomaz is actively encouraging client companies to recognise this change of balance.”
This year’s survey has uncovered a wave of optimism surging through the employment market, with 53 per cent of companies having expanded in 2014. A similar number are expected to grow through 2015.
Six out of 10 staff reported salary increases in 2014 – and two-thirds are expecting another boost this year.
“One of the challenges we are facing is that companies haven’t hired enough graduates over the past five, six or seven years,” said Mr Fletcher. “As people move on through age or promotion, companies are experiencing a skills shortage. There is a real need for employers to be willing to train younger people. They also need to work hard to keep their best employees.”
A knock-on effect of the imbalance between vacancies and candidates is that those seeking new positions are becoming more “picky”, said Mr Fletcher.
“A few years ago it was vital just to have a job. Now candidates can pick and choose between job offers, the ‘nice-to-haves’ are increasingly important – such as the commute distance, the work-life balance and the option of doing some work from home,” said Mr Fletcher. “Companies which are flexible and accommodating have the greatest success in recruiting the best people.”
Thirty-six percent of survey respondents highlighted an interesting role as the most important factor in job satisfaction, with 20 percent choosing career development and 14 percent saying good salary.
Image: Cooper Lomaz Recruitment Managing Director Richard Mould (left) and Operations Director Mark Fletcher launch the company’s 2015 Salary Survey.
Picture Credit Newsmakers PR
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