The average buildings services engineer received a 2.5% salary increase last year, half the level that was awarded during the previous 12 months, according to the latest Hays/CIBSE Journal annual salary and benefits survey.
The survey, published on page 16, shows that the average pay increase for building services dropped from the 5% recorded by the recruitment consultancy in 2022.
This was a sharper decline than recorded across the construction and property sector as a whole, which had a year-on-year fall in average salary increases from 4.4% to 2.9%.
This year’s survey also shows that job security has dropped down the rankings when it comes to the factors building services engineers consider important in a new role.
In last year’s Hays survey, it was rated by 26% of engineers as the most important consideration when weighing up other roles, second only to pay. This year, however, the proportion citing job security has dropped to 15%, behind ‘challenging role or projects’ (26%) and ‘career development and CPD’ (20%).
More than half (54%) of the building services engineers surveyed gave their work-life balance a positive rating, an increase on 44% last year.
The survey also showed that 68% of building services engineers are positive about their career prospects, an increase on the 63% figure recorded last year.
Across construction and property, Hays’ survey also shows that 82% of employers intend to take on staff over the coming 12 months, which is no change from the previous poll.
In addition, 81% of construction and property employers increased salaries in 2023, the same percentage who did so in the previous year, according to Hays.
