Report: Labour Market Outlook: Spring 2018

The quarterly Labour Market Outlook (LMO) highlights employers’ recruitment, redundancy and pay intentions. This edition considers the extent to which the tightening labour market is hampering employers’ ability to find staff and how this is putting upward pressure on wages.

Key findings

• Median basic pay increase expectations in the 12 months to March 2019 are two per cent, consistent with recent LMO reports. However, average basic pay award expectations during the same period have risen to 2.1 per cent from 1.8 per cent.
• The recent strengthening of pay growth is consistent with a recovery in productivity growth over the past two quarters.
• More than 60 per cent of employers report that at least some of their vacancies are proving hard to fill.
• In addition, more than a quarter of employers are raising wages to help tackle their recruitment difficulties.

The CIPD’s outlook survey is produced in partnership with The Adecco Group and is based on responses from 1,008 employers.