Three in four workers in the UK are considering changing jobs due to the cost of living crisis

Three quarters of UK professionals are now considering a new job due to the cost of living and rising inflation costs, a new survey has revealed.

CV-Library, one of the leading recruitment sites, surveyed more than 4,000 workers and found that 75 per cent were considering a new job due to rising costs, with 69 per cent indicating that salary is the main driving force when weighing up a new role.

With inflation rocketing in recent months, and predicted to increase even further to 9 per cent in the final quarter of this year, CV-Library confirms that salaries are simply not keeping up with increasing costs of living.

Based on their previous and current vacancies, CV-Library found that retail, sales, social care, and pharmaceutical industries were, on average, listing lower salaries than they were a year ago, with the retail industry seeing a five per cent drop in wages.

Some industries have seen year-on-year increases in salary, and these include customer service, education, and legal industries. However, these salary increases sit below the rate of inflation, so workers will likely not feel the benefit in their pay packet.

And in a job market that is very much geared to the employee, with around 1.2 million job adverts online and record levels of unfilled vacancies, workers will have a wide range of jobs to choose from.

It’s likely that any negotiating power employees had a few months ago during a period of mass resignations, especially when it came to their salary and pay, may prove more difficult with employers as they too attempt to deal with rising costs across the board.

Lee Biggins, chief executive and founder of CV-Library, explained why people may choose to change jobs: 

“Whilst these statistics are high, it feels sadly inevitable that UK professionals are feeling forced into action given the huge demands on household budgets. The pandemic pushed the desire for flexible and remote working to the fore but, whilst it is still important, we’re seeing this take a back seat as the need for more money takes precedence. 

“With unfilled vacancies still at record levels, the UK job market would be much healthier with a greater number of available candidates, but businesses will need to balance their own increased costs with the salary needs and expectations of job seekers.”