Jobseekers looking for customer service and administrative roles are finding advertised salaries at their lowest levels in recent years, reports Office Angels, as a surplus of jobseekers has pushed salaries down.
 
Data from the leading office recruiter Office Angels and mysalarychecker.com* shows that customer service roles has seen a sharp decline in advertised salaries, most likely due to high levels of competition for roles. This role has seen a -7.02% decline in salary since last year, the greatest within office support roles, bringing the average advertised salary down to £16,964.
 
Advertised salaries for administrators have also dropped as a result of heightened demand for jobs. As businesses look to cut costs in the consistently troubled economic climate, administrators have taken on elements of jobs which were previously held by other office staff, including office managers and secretaries. As a result, many other roles have been lost and the candidates who originally held these jobs have begun applying for administrator positions. Many graduates have also chosen to apply for these roles as they struggle to get into the jobs market. This sharp increase in jobseekers within the sector means that demand for administrator roles has grown exponentially and as a result, advertised salaries have dropped -4.36% to an average of £20,334.
 
Overall, general staffing salaries are down -0.19% on last month but up 0.13% on last year.
 
David Clubb, Managing Director of Office Angels said:
 
“The reality is that a surplus of jobseekers in these sectors means that companies do not need to offer competitive rates at the moment. Customer service roles such as call centre workers, back office workers, and virtual tech support specialists can often be outsourced to reduce costs, and an increase in companies turning to these solutions may be behind the high number of jobseekers in this sector. Meanwhile, the consolidation of certain office roles has led to an increase in competition for administrator roles, and a similar reduction in competitive rates. Finally, growing numbers of graduates have turned to admin and customer service roles as a good route into work in the difficult current climate.”
 
Customer service rates in the North East amongst lowest in the UK
 
Advertised salaries for permanent customer service roles in the North East are comparatively low compared to the rest of the UK, with advertised vacancies offering an average of £16,549. This is a decline of -3.06% compared with last year. Temporary roles in the North East are faring slightly better, with salaries remaining largely unchanged in recent years at a fairly competitive £8.
 
Meanwhile, permanent administrator roles in the North East are performing better than the national average, increasing 1.4% year on year to £19,309, while temporary rates remain steady at around £8 an hour.
 
Ian Gallagher, branch manager at Office Angels Middleborough, said, ”These statistics seem to support recent evidence that the market is currently saturated with high calibre candidates, the majority of whom are willing to accept a lower salary, quite often with increased responsibilities, simply to secure work. Employers can take advantage of this situation and it is reflected in the stalling of permanent salaries.
 
“Another evident local change is in the recruitment of temporary Customer Service Advisors. The increase in temporary contracts may well be down to the unstable economy, in which employers seem to favour temporary contracts to cover an increase in workload rather than committing to permanent offers of employment.”
 
The Office Angels Salary Watch tracks average advertised salaries across a range of administration and non professional services roles, on a monthly basis by reviewing job advertisements via mysalarychecker.com.
 
The Office Angels Salary Watch is powered by mysalarychecker.com, which gathers data information from millions of UK job postings, which have been listed on a range of job boards, recruitment agencies, corporate websites and the associated listed companies.
 
*mysalarychecker.com is operated by the Adecco Group UK & Ireland in conjunction with Salary Track - a Workdigital Ltd an Incisive Media company product.
 
Average salaries – January 2011

Job Title	London	South East	South West	East  Midlands	West Midlands	East of England	Yorks & Humber	North East	North West	Scotland	Wales
Administrator	£24,160	£21,546	£19,229	£17,416	£19,832	£21,398	£19,228	£19,309	£19,798	£21,436	£20,514
Customer Service	£21,841	£19,335	£19,298	£17,309	£18,935	£20,998	£15,924	£16,549	£16,495	£18,143	£19,479
Receptionist	£22,051	£17,064	£15,265	£16,449	£15,474	£16,853	£15,889	£15,639	£15,377	£14,333	£16,037
Office manager	£32,304	£29,140	£23,262	£25,188	£25,162	£29,606	£28,462	£27,815	£28,253	£27,797	£28,364
Secretary	£26,336	£21,404	£18,740	£19,359	£19,508	£20,047	£21,071	£20,809	£21,620	£20,024	£23,182
PA	£33,113	£27,627	£21,902	£23,967	£22,720	£25,115	£23,775	£24,369	£24,788	£22,570	£25,545
Retail	£19,278	£18,348	£16,939	£17,004	£17,582	£18,393	£17,294	£17,100	£17,342	£17,769	£15,599
Sales Advisor	£21,043	£19,667	£18,599	£18,950	£17,111	£20,328	£20,059	£18,732	£19,068	£24,351	£19,923
Telesales	£28,278	£20,589	£20,515	£17,356	£19,213	£22,101	£21,858	£22,357	£22,216	£22,216	£21,641
Chef	£27,431	£19,077	£18,451	£18,013	£19,494	£22,530	£19,581	£20,188	£19,996	£19,696	£21,304