The number of candidates searching for new travel jobs jumped again in February, with more registrations than at any point since September 2015.
According to the latest Travel Salary Index from recruitment firms C&M Travel Recruitment and C&M Executive Recruitment, candidate registrations last month rose by 11% from January 2017, which was already the highest monthly total for over a year, and by 47% compared to February last year.
It means 2017 has started at a record pace with the volume of new candidate registrations outnumbering every year at the same point since at least 2011.
Meanwhile, the number of newly-created vacancies also remained positive, with February seeing the second highest number of new jobs since April 2015, trailing only the all-time high figure recorded last month.
C&M director Barbara Kolosinska said: "Following on from January’s all-time high number of new travel jobs, February saw the most candidate registrations since autumn 2015 – and it was achieved in a 28 day month! These two stats confirm what we have already known for a few weeks – it has undoubtedly been an exceptionally busy start to the year for travel recruitment.
"The volume of new candidates entering the market means that competition among job seekers is increasing each day, but with hundreds of new roles already being created in 2017, there is now more choice than at any point in recent memory."
But it wasn’t such good news on the salary front.
Average salary for a new job in travel fell back by 3.95% in February to £24,760.
The figure was also down by 3.39% from February 2016.
C&M said the fall was largely a result of a lack of higher paid executive travel placements – those paying £40,000 and above – during the month.
Salaries for standard travel jobs – those paying up to £40,000 – saw a smaller monthly dip of 0.60% to an average of £22,760, although this was still up by 4.36% compared to last February.
