Wages fluctuate over time and according to different industrial sectors. In the U.K. currently, mining and quarrying, two pursuits less likely to be associated with environmental sustainability, have seen the biggest increase in wages between January 2022 and January 2023.
This is despite, across the economy, when adjusted for inflation, total pay falling by 3.2 percent, and regular pay dropping by 2.4 percent. Overall, the U.K. economy remains unstable and behind that of its leading European Union neighbours.
Behind mining comes administrative and support services; and in third place is professional, scientific and technical activities (a rather disparate and amorphous group of professions).
The data has been compiled by U.K. Trading platform CMC Markets, and provided to Digital Journal. The firm analysed the latest release from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), featuring results from their Wages and Salaries Survey, as compiled since January 2000.
This government compiled dataset details, for January 2022, that the average weekly earnings in mining sat at £1,203. This went up to £1,382 in January 2023, an increase of 13 percent The industry also saw an increase in weekly earnings of 14 percent over the past five years.
With the second place administrators, weekly earnings in the industry increased from £490 to £561 between January 2022 and January 2023, which is a percentage increase of 12 percent. The industry also saw a rise of 27 percent in five years.
Coming in third place is the spectrum of professional and scientific workers. Between January 2022 and January 2023, the average weekly earnings in the industry increased from £854 to £940, a percentage change of 9 percent. The study also found the five-year increase to be 28 percent, the highest in the top ten.
The top ten is:
| # | Industry | Jan 2023 Average Weekly Earnings | Jan 2022 Average Weekly Earnings | Jan 2018 Average Weekly Earnings | 1 Year Change | 5 Year Change |
| 1 | Mining and Quarrying | £1,382 | £1,203 | £1,191 | 12.95% | 13.82% |
| 2 | Administrative and Support Service Activities | £561 | £490 | £412 | 12.66% | 26.56% |
| 3 | Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities | £940 | £854 | £678 | 9.15% | 27.87% |
| 4 | Manufacturing – Chemicals and Man-made Fibres | £888 | £817 | £740 | 8.00% | 16.67% |
| 5 | Education | £527 | £488 | £436 | 7.40% | 17.27% |
| 6 | Manufacturing – Basic Metals and Metal Products | £663 | £619 | £563 | 6.64% | 15.08% |
| 7 | Manufacturing – Engineering and Allied Industries | £770 | £720 | £697 | 6.49% | 9.48% |
| 8 | Electricity, Gas and Water Supply | £805 | £756 | £671 | 6.09% | 16.65% |
| 9 | Other Manufacturing | £619 | £584 | £516 | 5.65% | 16.64% |
| 10 | Information and Communication | £1,075 | £1,016 | £845 | 5.49% | 21.40% |
As the table shows, taking fourth place on the list is the manufacturing sector for chemicals and fibres. Average weekly earnings increased from £817 in January 2022 to £888 in January 2023, a percentage increase of 8 percent. The five-year increase in wages in the industry was also 17 percent. Rounding out the top five is the education arena, which has seen weekly earnings rise from £488 in January 2022 to £527 in January 2023, an increase of 7 percent. Over the past five years, average weekly earnings have also risen 17 percent.
