Freelance Builder Pay Trends: July 2013
1st July 2013 | Hudson Contract
Hudson Contract delivers the most accurate indications of pay trends across the construction industry, using payroll data for over 2,200 construction companies and over 125,000 freelance builders to publish the average pay for the full spectrum of 17 different trades across five regions.
Our latest pay stats are a positive read, with all five regions showing an increase on three months ago.
Business has picked up most in the North-West and South-West, where earnings are up by 2.72% and 1.07% respectively. In the rest of the country however, the rise is tiny, amounting to just an extra pound or two per week. And it’s no real surprise that those in the South-East are the nation’s highest earners, on an average of £679 a week, compared to their lowest-earning counterparts in the North-East, where the average sum is £586.
Drilling down into the stats, the split between individual trends across all regions reveals a thoroughly mixed picture, with 54% earning more than they did 12 weeks ago, and 46% earning less.
Hot sectors
It’s been a good month for those working in demolition and equipment and operator hire, where earnings are up in all five regions. In particular:
- Demolition operatives in the North-West earned an average of £790 a week during June – a 12% boost on three months ago.
- Equipment and operator hire operatives in the Midlands also had a double digit earnings increase of 10.7%, which translates as around £55 more than they earned back in March.
Individual winners
- Joiners in the North-East: +19%
- Plasterers in the South-West: +18.6%
- Bricklayers in the North-East: +17.2%
Biggest losers
- Scaffolders in the South-West: -18.4%
- Electricians in the North-East: -16.2%
- Joiners in the Midlands: -13.9%
Comments Hudson Contract Managing Director David Jackson: “I’m pleased to have read this week that the latest quarterly ‘State of the Trade’ survey from the Federation of Master Builders reveals their members’ workloads right across Britain have begun to increase for the first time since the economic downturn began.
“Does this mean that the recession is now coming to an end? It would take a brave man to say so! We can but hope.”
NORTH EAST
| Last Month | 3 months ago | % change | |
| Bricklaying | £539.51 | £460.33 | 17.20% |
| Civil Engineering | £581.17 | £543.63 | 6.91% |
| Demolition | £405.78 | £383.36 | 5.85% |
| Electrical | £635.83 | £759.00 | -16.23% |
| Equipment & Operator hire | £640.76 | £599.34 | 6.91% |
| Fit out by specialist trades | £624.33 | £632.97 | -1.36% |
| General Construction | £563.30 | £567.73 | -0.78% |
| Insulation | £627.84 | £640.29 | -1.94% |
| Joinery | £584.34 | £491.03 | 19.00% |
| Mechanical | £642.08 | £625.70 | 2.62% |
| Plastering | £684.65 | £633.96 | 8.00% |
| Plumbing | £626.05 | £631.30 | -0.83% |
| Roofing | £528.38 | £576.93 | -8.42% |
| Scaffolding | £449.18 | £440.47 | 1.98% |
| Shopfitting | £628.82 | £720.84 | -12.77% |
| Steel & Timber frame erect | £665.03 | £670.61 | -0.83% |
| Surfacing contractors | £540.99 | £554.59 | -2.45% |
| Average | £586.36 | £584.24 | 0.36% |
NORTH WEST
| Last Month | 3 months ago | % change | |
| Bricklaying | £476.16 | £424.22 | 12.24% |
| Civil Engineering | £552.46 | £571.50 | -3.33% |
| Demolition | £789.85 | £706.70 | 11.77% |
| Electrical | £682.37 | £655.16 | 4.15% |
| Equipment & Operator hire | £646.72 | £603.34 | 7.19% |
| Fit out by specialist trades | £668.59 | £666.26 | 0.35% |
| General Construction | £565.34 | £570.34 | -0.88% |
| Insulation | £729.77 | £679.56 | 7.39% |
| Joinery | £603.80 | £589.71 | 2.39% |
| Mechanical | £449.98 | £442.09 | 1.78% |
| Plastering | £456.49 | £487.71 | -6.40% |
| Plumbing | £619.47 | £642.73 | -3.62% |
| Roofing | £663.39 | £677.43 | -2.07% |
| Scaffolding | £410.17 | £425.99 | -3.71% |
| Shopfitting | £944.96 | £913.92 | 3.40% |
| Steel & Timber frame erect | £677.41 | £585.26 | 15.75% |
| Surfacing contractors | £632.15 | £647.27 | -2.34% |
| Average | £621.71 | £605.25 | 2.72% |
MIDLANDS
| Last Month | 3 months ago | % change | |
| Bricklaying | £399.08 | £436.50 | -8.57% |
| Civil Engineering | £643.16 | £641.84 | 0.21% |
| Demolition | £649.47 | £617.60 | 5.16% |
| Electrical | £651.11 | £664.91 | -2.08% |
| Equipment & Operator hire | £570.25 | £515.29 | 10.67% |
| Fit out by specialist trades | £583.88 | £510.94 | 14.28% |
| General Construction | £617.26 | £595.21 | 3.70% |
| Insulation | £644.90 | £641.85 | 0.48% |
| Joinery | £589.67 | £684.60 | -13.87% |
| Mechanical | £678.95 | £720.05 | -5.71% |
| Plastering | £577.29 | £513.01 | 12.53% |
| Plumbing | £657.39 | £616.48 | 6.64% |
| Roofing | £426.99 | £483.78 | -11.74% |
| Scaffolding | £602.64 | £577.12 | 4.42% |
| Shopfitting | £707.97 | £794.96 | -10.94% |
| Steel & Timber frame erect | £782.77 | £747.82 | 4.67% |
| Surfacing contractors | £640.00 | £648.74 | -1.35% |
| Average | £613.10 | £612.39 | 0.12% |
SOUTH EAST
| Last Month | 3 months ago | % change | |
| Bricklaying | £539.70 | £502.47 | 7.41% |
| Civil Engineering | £642.14 | £675.39 | -4.92% |
| Demolition | £512.22 | £469.62 | 9.07% |
| Electrical | £779.94 | £814.21 | -4.21% |
| Equipment & Operator hire | £742.26 | £688.19 | 7.86% |
| Fit out by specialist trades | £664.96 | £608.18 | 9.34% |
| General Construction | £595.69 | £608.66 | -2.13% |
| Insulation | £692.71 | £742.57 | -6.71% |
| Joinery | £746.84 | £760.21 | -1.76% |
| Mechanical | £795.51 | £712.96 | 11.58% |
| Plastering | £641.85 | £558.88 | 14.85% |
| Plumbing | £776.83 | £887.75 | -12.49% |
| Roofing | £669.48 | £650.12 | 2.98% |
| Scaffolding | £633.25 | £591.70 | 7.02% |
| Shopfitting | £865.28 | £928.23 | -6.78% |
| Steel & Timber frame erect | £620.18 | £659.14 | -5.91% |
| Surfacing contractors | £623.72 | £644.32 | -3.20% |
| Average | £678.97 | £676.62 | 0.35% |
SOUTH WEST
| Last Month | 3 months ago | % change | |
| Bricklaying | £556.03 | £504.94 | 10.12% |
| Civil Engineering | £563.91 | £548.24 | 2.86% |
| Demolition | £561.61 | £558.11 | 0.63% |
| Electrical | £721.20 | £702.86 | 2.61% |
| Equipment & Operator hire | £573.96 | £549.62 | 4.43% |
| Fit out by specialist trades | £780.17 | £692.94 | 12.59% |
| General Construction | £612.64 | £635.76 | -3.64% |
| Insulation | £625.62 | £635.14 | -1.50% |
| Joinery | £474.67 | £492.00 | -3.52% |
| Mechanical | £622.92 | £655.00 | -4.90% |
| Plastering | £595.49 | £502.01 | 18.62% |
| Plumbing | £600.28 | £675.37 | -11.12% |
| Roofing | £546.10 | £547.76 | -0.30% |
| Scaffolding | £491.76 | £602.47 | -18.38% |
| Shopfitting | £933.76 | £915.31 | 2.02% |
| Steel & Timber frame erect | £727.00 | £692.00 | 5.06% |
| Surfacing contractors | £526.28 | £492.24 | 6.92% |
| Average | £618.44 | £611.87 | 1.07% |
Hudson Contract’s ‘window on the construction industry’ gives you hard figures and data that is not available from any other source, with pay averages that reflect the amounts paid by a sample number of businesses – large and small – to specific trades over the twelve weeks to 30th June 2013.
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