Travel wages fell to a 14-month low in December, according to the latest figures from recruitment firm C&M.
The average new role came with a salary of £24,628 last month, down by 2.23% from December 2016 and the lowest monthly figure since October 2016.
There was an even bigger fall for standard travel wages (those paying below £40,000) with a 6.92% monthly dip to £21,805, which was also down by 3.53% annually.
But according to the data from C&M Travel Recruitment and C&M Executive Recruitment, December was a strong month for executive roles (those paying above £40,000) with the average wage reaching £57,530, the fourth highest total of the year.
Across the regions it was a mixed picture, with travel salaries increasing by 3.48% in London and staying steady in the south of the UK, with just a 0.79% fall to £27,197.
In the north, wages fell by 4.46% to £22,280 but this follows two very strong months with growth of 4.34% in October and 5.72% in November.
December was once again the quietest month of the year for both new candidate registrations and vacancies, but new vacancy numbers rose by 12% from December 2016.
The number of new candidates fell by just 2%, the first year-on-year monthly fall in 2017.
"December is always the quietest month of the year for travel recruitment and, while last month was no exception, we still saw a very welcome jump in new jobs being made available compared to the previous December," said Barbara Kolosinska, director at both firms.
"2017 was an exceptionally busy year for C&M Travel Recruitment and the early figures from January suggest that this year will continue in much the same way – here’s hoping for an even busier 2018!"
