Construction industry professionals are receiving inflation-beating increases in pay according to recruitment specialists Hays.

Alistair Cox, the chief executive of Hays said: “The construction and property industry is doing well for us. About half the firms we deal with, and there are hundreds if not thousands, have lifted salaries by 5%.

"They are paying a bit more to bring on an architect or to keep a quantity surveyor because we are seeing counter-offers. If people are confident enough to change jobs then employers are confident enough to pay more to keep them," Cox said as Hays announced its annual results.

It’s not just the white-collar workers in the industry that are feeling the benefit, we’re also seeing a number of high demand trades benefiting from salary increases which points to workers in the whole industry feeling the benefit.

The Bank of England has said it won’t consider increasing interest rates until there are signs that wages have started to increase with the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Dr Ben Broadbent arguing that people had got used to lower pay awards. The Bank has halved its predictions for wage growth for the rest of 2014 whilst the Office of National Statistics announced wages have fallen for the first time since 2009 between April and June with inflation at 1.9%.