UK employers less likely to disclose salary or to offer perks amid hiring slump

“UK employers have become less likely to advertise salaries or offer non-pay benefits as a slump in hiring persists, according to data published on Tuesday by the jobs site Indeed.  The share of job postings including information on pay was 55 per cent in October, down from 65 per cent a year earlier and the lowest since the end of 2021, its figures showed.  

A similar pattern emerged with the share of postings advertising other benefits, such as flexibility, travel to work or food, which also fell compared with a year earlier, albeit with a smaller drop from 67 to 65 per cent.  Employers have also become less likely to offer signing-on bonuses, which became widespread during a post-pandemic hiring upswing in sectors suffering from acute skills shortages. 

Jack Kennedy, senior economist at Indeed, said the figures suggested companies were increasingly able to name their terms in a jobs market where candidates were now jostling for the limited opportunities available.  “The dial has swung further in their favour,” Kennedy said, noting that employers were also becoming stricter about office attendance rules, with the majority stipulating at least two or three days spent on-site. 

The drop in salary transparency is striking, because UK wage growth has so far remained relatively strong, despite a long period of falling payroll employment and sluggish hiring.  The latest official data shows average weekly wages were 4.8 per cent higher than a year earlier in the three months to September and recent survey evidence suggests there has been little change in employers’ expectations for wage growth over the year ahead.  But pay growth has been strongest in the public sector and in low-wage sectors like hospitality where increases in the minimum wage have forced employers’ hand. 

In keeping with official data and surveys, Indeed’s figures show average UK wage growth remains strong, with advertised pay 5.3 per cent higher than a year earlier, compared with 2.4 per cent in the US and Eurozone.  Job ads that do not disclose pay are more likely to be for higher-paid professional roles where salaries tend to be negotiable.  Hiring has been weakest in the areas where employers face greatest cost pressures from the higher minimum wage and payroll taxes. Indeed’s data showed UK postings for high-wage jobs were just 14 per cent below their pre-pandemic level.

However, postings for low-wage occupations were down 20 per cent, in contrast to Germany, France and Italy where demand for low-wage workers remains relatively strong.”

I’m sure many people, myself certainly, won’t even bother reading the advertisement if there is no salary displayed.

It should be mandatory to include salary in adverts.

To be honest, I find less disclose it, but the values are higher than current employees are being paid due to the stagnation over the last few years.

I wouldn’t apply for and my company wouldn’t advertise roles that don’t state the salary. It’s waste of time for both parties not to at least give a range.

Isn’t this just the irony of modern UK summed up?

No one can find a job, employers are complaining that there’s a “hiring slump” and their way of dealing with it is hiding less than mediocre salaries and not offering any perks.

You’d think that there’d be a lightbulb moment somewhere in the recruitment team at some point… “hmmm if no one is taking our jobs, maybe we should actually make them an attractive proposition”.

Job I’m in now didn’t advertise a salary and ended up having a pay cut to swap jobs, but I needed to leave my last job. Now I’m working for a vastly better business and had a pay rise this year which makes it even better.

I know this is probably an unusual experience but I’m so glad I took the chance and I’m undoubtedly in a better position now than a few years ago

Please stop listing legaly required things as perks please…

Not looking for work but I guarantee I would never apply for a job with no salary or benefits in the advert. Why go to the effort of applying, which is a ball ache these days, to get offered the job and find out it is not worth leaving my current job? People desperate for any job will still apply regardless because they need something, do all it will do is turn away who are already in work.

I work for a large recruitment company (in the marketing team) and we did research on salary transparency which found:

78% of people are less likely to apply to a job without a salary

22% of people exclusively apply to jobs that list salaries

Employers are shooting themselves in the foot not displaying their offered salaries. But we all know it’s because they want to offer as little as possible, and/or don’t want their current employees to learn there’s a huge discrepancy of salaries within their company for the same job/team.

Recruiters are annoying and arrogant but also usually pretty shit negotiators.

I find that if I’m confident that my profile fits their brief, I can do the recruiter interview then refuse to go any further until we’re aligned on salary expectations.

(Touch wood) this has never resulted in anything other than them caving and telling me a salary band for the role.

“How do we make the last few jobs in the country really fucking unappealing to anyone in need of a job?”

“Make them apply without knowing the salary so that they feel obliged to accept SHIT MONEY, otherwise we can’t recoup all the money we pissed up the wall in ChatGPT accounts for everyone in the office.”