More than a quarter of employers (28 percent) plan to give workers a pay rise this year and a further 40 percent are still considering increasing wages according to the latest JobsOutlook survey from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

Asked whether they anticipated increasing wages of current employees at their business or organisation this year:

• ·         11 percent say all staff are expected to get a pay rise
• ·         17 percent say some staff will get a pay rise
• ·         14 percent say they didn’t plan to increase anyone’s pay
• ·         40 percent haven’t decided
• ·         7 percent don’t know
• ·         11 percent won’t say

The REC’s chief executive Kevin Green says: “Employers are more able to find cash to reward staff as the economy picks up and confidence grows. We also know starting salaries for new joiners and hourly pay rates for temporary staff have increased sharply at the start of 2014. With inflation coming down, this all points to the squeeze on peoples’ pockets beginning to ease.

“Another factor for employers will be the growing scarcity of skilled candidates. As that becomes more apparent in a range of sectors from white collar IT and management roles, to drivers and caterers, businesses will be keen to do what they can to hang on to the staff they have.” The survey also reveals that more employers plan to increase their workforce over the next quarter and next 12 months.

Asked about their plans for permanent headcounts in both the short and medium term: 76 percent employers say they will make more offers of permanent work in the next 3 months, up 7 points from February survey, 81 percent say they will directly employ more staff over the next 4-12 months, up 9 points since February.When planning about future use of agency workers:48 percent employers predict they will increase their use of temps over the next 3 months, up 1 point from last month. 48 percent say they will engage more agency workers over the next 4-12 months, up 2 points from last month.