Happy New Year (aka party like it is 2007)

As we enter 2025, a lot of people will be looking for new roles as part of their new year resolutions.

It has been noticeable in my emails that quite a few new job roles are also being advertised – perhaps due to calendar year budget cycles for some organizations.

However, what I have also noticed is that salaries seem to remain stagnant. A selection of roles in different JiscMail emails were all in the 30-50k a year (GBP) range. Out of interest, I put my 17k (first London salary) into the UK’s official inflation calculator and apparently that salary – which was painfully low at the time – is now the equivalent of 30k. That professional positions are being advertised at this rate (compared to my first London role which was a one-year role between graduation and going onto a postgrad) is pretty scary stuff.

A BBC article (https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64970708) on the lack of UK wage growth since 2008 covers more on this. Indeed I wrote about the problems from the lack of salary inflation in 2019!

For those in the UK running April financial years – here’s hoping for more of a 2007 mindset in salary negotiations than what has been the norm since.