Salaries for accountants in the UK have gone up by a year-on-year average of around 3%, substantially higher than last year's 0.5% rise and well above the levels recorded in several other European countries, according to research by recruitment specialists Robert Walters.
Pay inflation in the UK is running ahead of the rates seen in Netherlands (up 0.1%), France (0.4%), Germany (1.1%) and Ireland (1.3%) according to the Robert Walters 2014 Salary Survey, while average earnings in Australia dipped by 0.9% in the year.
Salaries remained at broadly consistent levels across much of the Midlands, South East and Home Counties regions, although in London the research suggests that ongoing shortages of junior staff will push up pay for part-qualified and newly-qualified finance professionals.
Robert Walters' findings show that contractors are also benefiting from a pay hike, with average daily rates going up by more than 7%, beating the rises for permanent staff in general.
However Manchester and the North West are the exception to this trend, as the data shows demand in this region for short-term project based skills pushed up hourly rates for in-house accountants by over 8%. Robert Walters says relocations of central finance functions to the area are also fuelling pay rises for both permanent and temporary transactional accountancy roles.
The survey predicts demand will build in particular for both newly qualified accountants and those with strong digital business expertise over the next year, but says job prospects in general look good.
Andrew Setchell, director of accounting recruitment at Robert Walters, said: 'As a result of the downturn, accountancy recruitment has until recently been dictated by cost consolidation and a need for highly experienced specialists. While certain professionals will continue to be widely prized for their value across the market - those with solid technical and regulatory knowledge, for example, or a strong track record in business partnering - we expect to see hiring levels rising overall in anticipation of renewed economic growth.'
