Labour rates edge closer to £1,000 per week despite construction slowdown

Labour rates continued to rise last month in spite of signs of a slowdown in building activity, according to Hudson Contract’s payroll, the biggest in the construction industry.

We saw average earnings for self-employed tradespeople grow by 1.3 per cent to £992 per week during November. This was 5.1 per cent higher than the same period last year.

Our managing director Ian Anfield said: “Our clients are busy, but as we have seen for some time tender opportunities are slowing down as housebuilders react to challenging conditions in the mortgage market caused by the increased cost of borrowing. Sooner or later, developers will have to choose between maintaining their turnover or their margin.

“Many clients believe the housing market will contract next year but based on our past experience, construction firms will still want to retain their most productive operatives. During the last downturn in 2007-09, we saw that self-employed tradespeople with the right mix of skills and experience continued to command high rates of pay. It was the newly qualified, the improvers and the young who suffered.

“There are certainly lots of incremental gains within the gift of the self-employed to further increase productivity which will help them to maintain their income levels.”

To view our interactive pay trends map click here

Weekly earnings hit all-time highs in the East of England (£1,092), London (£1,041) and Yorkshire and Humber (£981) during November, which is traditionally one of the busiest months of the year in the lead-up to the festive season. Self-employed electricians enjoyed the highest pay of all the trades, earning an average of £1,199 per week.

Hudson Contract is the UK’s largest provider of tax status and employment contract services to the construction industry with annual revenues of £2 billion and a client base of 2,600 construction SMEs. Our family-owned group delivers the most accurate indication of subcontractor pay trends across the construction industry, publishing the average pay for a spectrum of 17 different trades split across 10 regions in England and Wales. We supply statistics to the Bank of England to keep policymakers updated with real-time insights on demand for skilled labour.