Order pickers have picked up a hefty increase in salary, according to Blue Arrow, a recruitment firm specialising in the catering, driving, industrial and office sectors. The recruiter’s October sector report found pickers’ average salary rose 20.7% year over year to £19,672.

However, when it came to the transport and logistics sector as a whole, pickers salaries remained well behind class 1 drivers at £29,160, class 2 drivers at £24,739 and forklift drivers at £22,043. It was also below the industry average of £27,435, which actually edged down 0.8% from £27,654 a year earlier.

“Things are certainly looking up for pickers as we enter the busy festive period,” said Blue Arrow Marketing Director Toni Richards. “Although they’re still earning well below the industry average, a huge 20.7% hike in salary brings them considerably closer — and it will certainly help massively in the run-up to Christmas.”

In other segments tracked by Blue Arrow:

• Hospitality and catering posted the biggest decrease, with average earnings down 2.2% to £23,128. Waiters/bartenders were the hardest hit, seeing their earnings decrease 8.4% to £18,551. Head chefs not only received the biggest pay increase in the sector but also remained the best paid, with a 6.9% rise in earnings to £32,731.
• Admin and secretarial found call centre advisors and customer service advisors garnered the biggest pay increases at 5.4% and 6% respectively. However, their average salaries of £17,211 and £18,594 lagged well behind the industry average of £23,889, which fell 6% from the previous year. Average earnings of P.A.s remained the best-paid professionals in the sector, with average earnings up 4.7% to £27,813.
• Manufacturing and production was the only one of Blue Arrow’s specialist sectors to see a rise in average earnings, edging up only 0.1%. Production operatives posted the biggest increase in salary, up 6.4% to £17,277. However, this still left them at just under half the industry average of £35,807. A 3.2% increase saw fitters’ average salary rise to £29,811 and they remained the best-paid in all regions except the South East, Northern Ireland and Yorkshire, where welders had an average salary of £26,754.

“In all three sectors which produced a lower average salary year-on-year, the drops were significantly less pronounced than those from September 2015 to September 2016,” Richards said. “As the market continues to flatten, we hope to start seeing some of these drops level out and finally, turn to increases as we enter the new year.”