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Travel salary levels take a dip in December

UK travel salaries for newly advertised roles dipped in December to the lowest level in more than a year as the travel recruitment market slowed down for Christmas, new data shows.

The average new role in the industry offered a salary of £24,628 last month, down by 2.23% from last December and the lowest monthly figure since October 2016.

There was a steeper fall for standard travel wages which pay below £40,000, with a 6.92% monthly fall to £21,805 – down by 3.53% annually.

However, it was a strong month for executive roles paying more than £40,000 with average pay reaching £57,530 – the fourth highest total of 2017.

It was a mixed picture around the country with travel salaries increasing by 3.48% in London and remaining steady in the south of the UK with just a 0.79% fall to stand at £27,197, but dropping by 4.46% to £22,280 in the north.

The northern dip follows two very strong months with growth of 4.34% in October and 5.72% in November.

The distractions of the Christmas holiday season meant that December was once again the quietest month of the year for both new candidate registrations and vacancies.

Yet new vacancies rose by 12% year-on-year, while the number of new candidates fell by two per cent – the first year-on-year monthly fall in 2017.

Barbara Kolosinska, director at C&M Travel Recruitment and C&M Executive Recruitment, which compiled the figures, said: “December is always the quietest month of the year for travel recruitment and, while last month was no exception, we still saw a very welcome jump in new jobs being made available compared to the previous December.

“2017 was an exceptionally busy year for C&M Travel Recruitment and the early figures from January suggest that this year will continue in much the same way.”

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