The top 10 cities for a pay rise right now

Emma Finamore
08 May 2018

Get ready to move to Glasgow and Brighton.

Placeholder — Glasgow saw the biggest pay rise of all major cities in April 2018.

Businesses across the UK are working hard to attract talented candidates into their roles, with some of the nation’s key cities witnessing above-average hikes in pay in April 2018.

School leavers considering moving to new towns for jobs, apprenticeships or even university could use the news as a way of choosing where to relocate.

The latest data – from from CV-Library – explored fluctuations in salaries, jobs and applications throughout April and found that the nation as a whole saw salaries rising by 2% year-on-year.

What’s more, many key cities across the UK saw an even bigger jump in pay packets last month.

The top cities for a pay rise right now include:

Glasgow – Salaries rose by 13.9%
Brighton – Salaries rose by 12.3%
Cardiff – Salaries rose by 9.6%
Liverpool – Salaries rose by 5.5%
Nottingham – Salaries rose by 5.4%
Southampton – Salaries rose by 4%
Portsmouth – Salaries rose by 3.7%
London – Salaries rose by 2.5%
Manchester – Salaries rose by 2.1%
Hull – Salaries rose by 1.6%

What’s more, some of the nation’s key industries also witnessed impressive salary growth when comparing data from April 2018, with that of April 2017. The biggest increases were seen in the legal (11.3%), IT (7.2%), care (7.2%), marketing (4.4%) and sales (4.3%) industries.

"With salaries rising across many of the nation’s key cities and sectors, the data suggests that now is a great time to be looking for work – especially if you want to boost your pay packet!”

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, said: “It’s great to see that employers are remaining positive in the face of on-going uncertainty and are continuing to invest in their recruitment efforts.

“What’s more, with salaries rising across many of the nation’s key cities and sectors, the data suggests that now is a great time to be looking for work – especially if you want to boost your pay packet!”

Furthermore, job vacancies were also up last month, increasing by a staggering 16.5% year-on-year. That said, UK job hunters were not feeling as confident. In fact, application rates dropped by 8.2% when compared with data from April 2017.

Biggins added: “With job vacancies continuing to rise, it’s clear that there are plenty of great opportunities out there for today’s professionals. That said, the drop in applications suggests that candidates aren’t feeling confident enough to move around the job market right now.

“While the state of the UK economy is still very unstable, businesses are pushing hard to attract the top talent, making now a great time to secure the very best package.”

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