The data shows that UK salary growth is expanding slightly beyond the national inflation rate, which was sat at 1.8 per cent during this period. Furthermore, some of the nation’s top industries experienced standout salary growth, including automotive, property and manufacturing.

Alongside this, the job market also saw an increase in job postings when compared to February 2016, confirming that businesses are remaining confident. In fact, vacancies grew by 7.6 per cent nationwide with the manufacturing, charity and design sectors leading the way in terms of new job offerings. Some of the major cities around the UK which experienced similar salary and job growth, included:

Top cities for salary growth (February 2017 vs. February 2016) Top cities for job posting increases (February 2017 vs. February 2016) 1. Brighton – 9.9% 1. Portsmouth – 21.9% 2. Edinburgh – 9.5% 2. Glasgow – 20.8% 3. Hull – 8.6% 3. Manchester – 11.6% 4. Bristol – 8.6% 4. Birmingham – 10.6% 5. Manchester – 6.8% 5. Sheffield – 10.2% 6. Liverpool – 5.1% 6. Cardiff – 9.5% 7. Sheffield – 3.9% 7. Hull – 9.5% 8. Birmingham – 3.2% 8. Southampton – 9.3% 9. Glasgow – 2.5% 9. Liverpool – 8.7% 10. Portsmouth – 2.4% 10. Brighton – 5.3%

Lee Biggins, founder and managing director of CV-Library, comments: “It’s fantastic to witness the job market growing at such an impressive rate year-on-year. With businesses keen to attract only the best candidates to their roles, it’s positive to see that companies across the UK are pushing their salaries up in order to offer competitive pay packages to talented recruits. With more and more organisations putting out job adverts, competition to attract skilled workers is fierce. The offering of strong pay packages is clearly one tactic that companies are using in an effort to stay one step ahead of their competition.”

Despite this year-on-year growth, applications saw a drop of 8.2 per cent, when comparing month-on-month data. Alongside this, total candidate applications fell by 3.5 per cent when compared with February 2016, suggesting that despite the rise in salary and job offerings year-on-year, candidate appetite is not keeping pace.

Biggins continues: “It’s unsurprising to see application rates dropping off after January; the mantra of ‘New Year, new me’ means that January is traditionally one of the busiest periods for recruiters, with job applications vastly increasing. The challenge for businesses now is to tap into this talent pool while it’s still available. As a result, we’re seeing increasingly fierce activity from companies, with job postings and salaries on the rise. All this bodes well for the candidates out there looking for their next move, with companies keen to bring in the best talent.”