Hays international salary survey 2015

With the UK economic recovery in full swing and the construction sector at its busiest for several years, it is skills shortages that are making headlines.

The matter is of such urgency that the Conservative government has committed itself to creating 3 million apprenticeships over the course of the new parliament.

With such domestic demand for talent, the pull of working in the UK is increasingly eclipsing the lure of overseas jobs that was so strong during the recession. And with a number of previously strong global economies faltering, it has become less clear whether the salary boost workers leaving UK shores have come to expect is still guaranteed. Nevertheless, the results of Building’s annual international consultants’ salary survey, conducted by Hays, show that overseas opportunities continue to exist for those looking for them. But with average salaries falling in some countries, are more and more overseas staff looking to move back home?

Richard Gelder, director at Hays Construction, says that a few years ago, in the depths of the recession, the lack of work in the UK meant people easily saw the appeal of working abroad in places like the Middle East, Australia or China. This has clearly changed. “Now there is such a huge amount of opportunity in the UK, a lot of those people are thinking that there is no need for them to look overseas as they have got a choice of jobs here,” he says.

Stuart Senior, chairman of the directorate and board partner at Gleeds, notes that “salary levels are increasing quite substantially and work levels are quite high now in the UK” as people attempt to retain the best talent, a view supported by Hays’ UK Consultants’ Survey, published in February, that showed UK salaries had grown by 5.25% on average in 2014.

Jason Brooks, UK international director at WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, says he is “starting to see people coming back and not least because the UK is starting to implement some fantastic projects – and the following for great projects is as important as financial gain these days”. He says this is also just the natural course re-emerging whereby some markets are strong and some less so, and which naturally leads some expatriates working abroad to think about coming back.

Nevertheless, the construction industry is not, as yet, seeing those professionals who left during the recession return to the UK en masse. Hays’ Gelder says there is just a “regular trickle” of returnees. This, he says, is because most who went overseas in the recession, as well as those considering heading overseas now, view it more as a career development and lifestyle choice, than a financial imperative.

So what is happening? Certainly it does seem that the bubble that enveloped Australia, China and others is now beginning to deflate as the UK, in turn, recovers. Gelder says that for Australia, in particular, “there just isn’t the same need to import talent as they have enough through the local labour pool and the UK expats already based there”.

The UK is starting to implement some fantastic projects - and the following for great projects is as important as financial gain these days

Jason Brooks, WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff

This is reflected in the salary survey findings, which have, for example, shown a drop in the highest nominal pay rate for experienced quantity surveyors in Australia to £92,000 from £100,000. Vincent Clancy, chief executive at Turner & Townsend, says this is because places such as Perth whose “whole economy was based around investment in LNG and mining have taken a hit and this has had a knock-on effect in other areas such as real estate”.

China, still the busiest construction market globally, is not as busy as it was a couple of years ago, according to Gelder, and this comes across in the broad drop in salaries for Hong Kong. While demand is still strong, it is not as acute, meaning, for example, the upper end salary for a civil engineer has dropped by £14,000 to £61,000, according to Hays’ data.

But it is not bad news across the board. The Middle East is experiencing something of a “renaissance”, says Alan Muse, director of built environment professional groups at the RICS, with experienced structural engineers commanding a top salary of £86,000 up from £58,000 in 2014. Clancy agrees that the Middle East, “in particular”, is very busy at the moment. “It is a market based on expat staff. Its model is probably one of the few in the world where the whole market revolves around resource [people] going into that market to deliver programmes,” he says.

The skills shortage has circled the globe since the financial crisis and now it is the UK creating a need, which Gelder says is seeing an influx of foreign workers to fill the gaps in the UK market. Hays is seeing more Australian and New Zealand nationals, as well as EU nationals coming to the UK.

This, Gelder adds, represents an ongoing cultural shift within the UK from five years ago when people felt they needed to employ those with UK backgrounds. Now it is more the norm to employ people based on their expertise rather than where they may have been educated.

T&T’s Clancy says he believes that for T&T’s staff “having international experience in a global company is vital,” leading many to still look overseas, even when not driven to do so by market forces. Likewise, WSP’s Brooks believes that to attract and secure talent the firm needs to provide great opportunities in a variety of forms to suit their employees’ circumstances, whether that be short-term projects, secondments or long-term transfers abroad.

However the global economy shifts, it is clear the war for talent will continue.