The collapse of Thomas Cook in September led to a 22% jump in travel industry job seekers the following month, new analysis reveals.
The failure saw more job seekers register with C&M Travel Recruitment and C&M Executive Recruitment than at any other time this year.
But the number of available vacancies failed to keep up with the demand, with a rise of just 5%.
Average pay for a new job in the industry rose by almost 4% to £29,280 – just £6 below a record high reached in June.
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Salaries for standard travel jobs paying up to £40,000 a year saw a higher monthly increase of 4.59% to also reach £25,965 – the second highest level since the C&M pay index began in 2012.
October was a positive month across the country for travel salaries, with the south seeing a 4.48% monthly rise and the north recording an increase of 3.66%.
C&M director Barbara Kolosinska said: “October was a very positive month all round for travel recruitment, with candidates, vacancies and salaries all rising.
“Wages have now increased year-on-year for the past 17 months in a row, but this is because of the lack of candidates looking to change roles.
“There are now signs that this appears to be slowly changing and that candidates are beginning to explore job opportunities again, but what we need to see is consistency.”
She added: “Concerns around the general election and Brexit are continuing to hamper the travel recruitment market, but with salaries at near-record levels, there are many fantastic career openings available for the right applicants.”
