Marks Sattin, the accountancy and financial services recruiter, has released details of its research into salaries in the professions.

Professionals in the financial services sector enjoyed average salary increases of nearly 8% in 2010 and many are expecting a bumper 13.5% rise this year. This would bring the average salary to £41,300.

However, Marks Sattin’s MD, Dave Way, said salary increases were below expectations last year as employers looked to restoring their margins after the recession and if that trend is repeated this year, the rise will only be 8.5%. He went on to say that professionals in the sector are optimistic that business will continue to pick up, but they may be being over optimistic in their expectation of a 13.5% rise.

The survey also discovered that the average bonus payment last year was £6,900 equating to nearly 20% of basic salary. Job security in the sector improved last year as the average time spent in a role rose by two months to 31.5 months.

Temporary staff’s pay remained higher than their permanent and contractor counterparts even though their rate only increased by 2%. The average temporary worker earned the equivalent of £45,100 last year, 24% more than those with more stable contracts.

Meanwhile, Powerchex has reported that the two 4 day weekends in April had an adverse affect on recruitment in the financial services sector.

The number of job offers in investment banking dropped by more than 30% last month and stockbroking and hedge funds also reported less recruitment activity. On the other hand, job offers in investment management bucked the trend by rising 19% compared to the previous month.

One group that has seen a marked increase in recruitment activity is IT contractors. There were 75% more vacancies for their skills last month compared to this time last year as companies look to improve data security.

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We’re working harder than ever and struggling to find enough time for leisure activities, according to a survey by Randstad.

The organisation’s quarterly workmonitor survey has discovered that about 67% of the UK’s workforce, including umbrella company contractors, think their workload increased in Q2 and 40% of employees are finding it harder than ever to organise time off.

Workers are also finding it increasingly hard to switch off even when they’re not at work. Nearly 50% think a lot about work when they’re on holiday and 43% get emails and questions from their colleagues while they’re away. More than 60% find that they are even busier when they get back from a break as the work has piled up in their absence.

However, the survey did discover that working longer hours makes us feel better! 65% of people working over 40 hours per week said they were satisfied whilst only 55% of those working between 25 and 32 hours felt the same way.

Hardly surprisingly, more than a third of public sector workers are now worried about redundancy compared to 29% in the previous survey and yet private sector employees are still more concerned about the possibility of losing their jobs and having to find alternative employment.

Concerns about age discrimination are highest in the 18 to 24 age bracket with nearly 50% of young employees worried about job security, whilst almost 9 out of 10 employees aged over 55 would like to get a new job but are less confident in their ability to secure one compared to younger people.

The CIPD reported recently that more than over half a million jobs have been lost in the past couple of years. Full-time employment dropped by nearly a million but part-time vacancies increased by 330,000. The trend for part-time working does seem to be continuing and there are now as many employees putting in 16 to 30 hours per week as were working more than 45 before the recession took hold, the Institute’s chief economic adviser said.

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