2016 may become known as the year when you didn’t have to be in the traditional worlds of banking or finance to have seen a significant increase in salary.
According to statistics recently published by Emolument, a salary evaluation website, the professions coming up to meet the salaries of high finance are in the communication and marketing arenas. These disciplines enjoyed the biggest salary increase in 2015. Managers in this field enjoyed a substantial 37% rise, bringing them head to head with the 37% wage rise of many corporate banking positions. Emolument believes that such a substantial increase is due to and reflects the continuing demand for gifted and experienced communication and marketing managers.
Although the data is limited to a survey of 15,700, London-based, Emolument website users, the company believes that it gives a reliable flavour of emerging global trends.
If you are in the human resources field then there’s much to celebrate as the profession has seen a staggering 31% rise for managerial positions. According to Emolument this is, partly, attributable to HR managers developing their skills and style to adapt to a changing contemporary market.
But, if you interface with screens rather than faces then you won’t be too disappointed, as techies have seen a respectable increase of 12% in total compensation for Java developers. C# developers will be jumping just a little bit higher with joy with their 23% increase. According to another report published by Glassdoor the tech industry has galloped over the finishing line to rank as the top paying sector in the UK.
One profession in which it clearly pays to pay attention is within banking research. Employees both in the financial buy-side and in banking have seen an increase in salary this year, of 22% and 12% respectively. According to Emolument’s data analysis, any funds or banks which are aiming to use innovative investment solutions in order to gain competitive advantage will be ever more dependent upon research resources. Similarly, the sell-side of the industry requires extensive research and analysis to support trading decisions and its strategic view.
Other professions with significant remuneration increases are business development showing a substantial 31% rise. Fund and portfolio managers (buy-side), trading (banking) and senior programme & project management all show a healthy 18% increase.
There may be many possible explanations for these shifting financial tables and Alice Leguay, one of the co-founders of Emolument, believes that the high-delta finance sector, known for high levels of remuneration, is now being ousted from the top of the league table by the emerging big hitters within the IT and Digital communication fields.
For those with digital know-how and experience the remuneration world is their oyster. And, those monitoring the ever-movable feast of salaries believe that the only way is up for digital and communication high flyers.
So, when planning your future career path or indeed considering a change in direction, you are well advised to either develop your communication skills or learn to speak techie. Or both.
For a full list of the professions and their salary increases click here.