Average starting salaries for professional roles in finance and accounting, financial services, technology and administration in London will grow by 1.9% in 2017, according to the Robert Half 2017 Salary Guide.

Starting salaries for accountancy and finance roles are predicted to rise on average by 2% across 100+ positions in SMEs and large businesses across the capital.

The most difficult areas to recruit for, according to London based CFOs, are for roles in payroll (25%). This is reflected in higher than average predicted salary rises for London based financial planning and analysis managers (5.8%), and project accountants (4.9%). However, CFOs in large companies will see the biggest increases (6.8%). Salary rises for compliance roles range from 1.4% for compliance managers to 3.0% for compliance associates.

Salaries are predicted to continue rising for finance and accounting professionals across the board and businesses are eager to hire candidates with the right cultural fit along with technical expertise and experience. Part-qualified candidates looking to advance their careers with the same company are seeing their starting salary offers increase.

“Competition for the best people is intensifying and as this year’s guide demonstrates, salaries for hard to fill roles continue to rise and outpace the average salary by a significant margin,” Matt Weston, Director, London, Robert Half UK, said.