BUSINESS HELPDESK HELP DESK


EMPLOYMENT TRENDS IN MERCHANTING 2025


The BMF’s annual Remuneration Survey - covering the 12 months ending April 2025 - provides some interesting insights.


THE BMF’S ANNUAL Remuneration Survey is one of the key annual reports shared with members, showing the salaries and benefits paid to builders’ merchants’ employees at every level, from Branch managers to trainees. While much of the detail is shared


exclusively with BMF members, we can reveal some of the top-line figures around pay rises, employee retention, gender diversity and apprenticeships and compare progress against previous years.


Salaries and employee retention


This year, the median salary increase in builders’ merchants across the UK was 2.0%, the lowest in several years, reflecting the current lower inflation level. In both 2024 and 2022, the median increase was 3.0%. In 2022, when inflation was at its peak, salaries grew by 5.0%.


While a 2.0% increase was observed across England, the median increase in both Scotland and Wales was 2.25%. The employment figures also show a slight increase in the number of leavers. The churn level – or employee turnover


rate – increased nationally to 20.20%. However, this represents a midpoint from the two previous years, where leavers represented 19.36% of the total workforce in 2024 and 21.0% in 2023. There were also substantial regional variations, with the West Midlands experiencing a churn rate of 30.29% at one extreme, while the rate for the Northern region was 15.97%.


Absenteeism was measured for the first time this year, and it’s interesting to note that the Northern Region also recorded one of the lowest rates at 1.90%. This


was bettered only by Yorkshire at 1.35%. London (6.95%) and Scotland (5.26%) reported the highest absentee levels. Nationally, the figure was 3.23%.


Gender diversity Another KPI tracked annually is the ratio of male to female employees, which provides a measure of progress in gender diversity within the sector. As the sector has committed to improving diversity, it is disappointing to note that once again, the gender balance has regressed this year, with the current ratio of 85:15 the same as in 2017, when the male to female employment ratio was first measured.


The high point came in 2022, when the national ratio was 81:19; in 2024, it had fallen back to 82:18.


While most regions reported gender ratios around or worse than this year’s national average, both East Anglia and Scotland (80:20) returned a more positive result.


With BMCareers, the BMF’s biggest investment in an ongoing programme to develop greater public awareness of the sector and


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attract a broader cross-section of candidates for member vacancies, now in full swing, we hope to see a better mix in gender diversity and other social factors in the coming years.


Apprenticeships The Remuneration Report also measures the number of apprentices as a percentage of the total workforce.


Despite the success of the BMF Apprenticeship Pledge, with 105 members having already committed to deliver over 15727 new apprenticeships by 2030, economic conditions appear to have limited recruitment in the past 12 months. The national figure for the number of apprentices as a percentage of the total workforce at 0.96% is slightly lower than in 2024 (0.99%) and 2023 (1.09%).


Five regions, however, outperformed the national average, with the North West returning the highest figure at 3.65%.


On another positive note, seven of twelve regions outperformed the national ratio in the gender balance of their apprentices. The national split sat at 80:20 (male to female), but this was significantly bettered by West Midlands (66:34), and three other regions, SE South of the Thames, East Midlands and Yorkshire at 68:32. We hope the momentum created by BMF initiatives leads to further progress next year. BMJ


The BMF’s Remuneration Report is one of many business reports and services provided to members. To find out more about the benefits of membership visit www.bmf. org.uk, email: info@bmf.org.uk or phone us on 02476 854980.


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net August 2025


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