Hudson Contract delivers the most accurate indications of pay trends across the construction industry, using payroll data for over 1,200 construction companies and 58,000 subbies to publish the average pay for the full spectrum of 17 different trades across five regions.

The trend of ‘mixed fortunes’ has survived all the way into winter. Which is to say that while earnings have decreased in all regions apart from the South-East, the fall amounts to less than 1.0 per cent in the North-West and Midlands.

As the year drew to a close, the South-East remained the highest-earning part of the country, with rates steadily increasing for the past three months. Equally, general construction wages have been on a steady upward trend.

One notable feature this month: electrical workers’ earnings are down across all regions.

Comments Hudson Contract Managing Director David Jackson: “At the start of December, the number of operatives we were paying was higher than at any time throughout 2009. As you would expect, this tailed off once firms began to wind down for the holiday period. Having said that, as our client base expands and operative numbers grow, our pay stats become an even more useful barometer of the state of play across the country, and trade by trade.

“Looking back over a tough year, average pay seems to have returned to the levels of twelve months ago. Does that herald recovery? Let’s hope so…”

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 31st December 2009.