Freelance Builder Pay Trends: September 2018

Hudson Contract delivers the most accurate indications of pay trends across the construction industry, using payroll data for over 2,200 construction companies to publish the average pay for a spectrum of 17 different trades now split across ten regions.

What goes up must come down . . .

Nine of the ten regions are down this month on August, with only the South-East bucking the downward trend with a rise of £6 a week. Having said that, if you look at 2018’s statistics since January, earnings have increased across the board by £70 per week.

For the fifth year in a row our statistics show a drop during September, this year it is 1.96%, last year 2.04%, 2016 it was 2.48%, 2015 we saw 2.69% and 2014 it was 1.48%. “But it’s not all doom and gloom” says Hudson Contract Managing Director Ian Anfield “Whilst we have seen this drop in September over the last five years, in the last four the figures have always bounced back by the end of the year to well above the September levels. It’s a trend not a crisis.”

To view our interactive pay trends map click here

Individual Trades:  National Winners and Losers:

Winners:

• Plumbing: +1.70%
  Gains in Yorkshire & Humber and the West Midlands

• Bricklaying: +1.17%
  Gains in the South-West

• Roofing: +0.56%
  East Midlands on the up

Losers:

• Steel & Timber Frame Erection: -10.96%
  East Midlands and East of England hit the hardest

• Insulation: -10.86%
  West is hit – North-West, West Midlands and South-West all down

• Plastering: -8.28%
  Down but still £63 per week up on the start of the year

The latest IHS Markit/CIPS UK statistics also reflect this downturn, dipping slightly from August. House building and commercial activity continued to grow, with civil engineering activity decreasing for the second month in a row.

Brexit and the upcoming budget at the end of this month appear to be curtailing growth and any long term vision at the moment.

Speaking with clients, there may be other reasons as to why the figures are like they are this month. “We have seen an extended holiday season this year, with many clients and sub-contractors taking their holidays late into September. I would say Carillion and the fallout is the more pressing worry than Brexit, with payment terms and recovery of money being key to many firms. A no or low risk approach is being taken by all, but the general comments across the country are let’s just carry on and deal with issues as they arise. No point worrying about things they can’t control.”

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 during September 2018.