Travel pay fell by almost four per cent month-on-month as a summer slowdown hit the travel recruitment market in August.
The average new travel job now comes with a salary of £26,597 – down 3.63% from July but up by 0.95% from August 2017.
Average pay remained up by a healthy 3.26% in the rolling 12-month average, according to the latest travel salary index produced by C&M Travel Recruitment and C&M Executive Recruitment.
The average new travel job in London is now paying more than £30,000 for the first time. With a figure of £30,508, average salaries have risen to top the previous high of £29,939 set in April 2016.
Travel wages in the north of the country reached their highest level since October 2012 after a 0.78% monthly rise to hit £24,075.
But a lack of higher paid executive placements led to the overall fall in average salaries.
The late summer holiday period had a clear impact on the recruitment market last month with the number of new travel jobs falling by 15% from July and a “troubling” 27% from August 2017.
The outlook was slightly better for candidates, with a two per cent increase in registrations from July 2018 although the total remained down compared to the same month last year.
C&M director Barbara Kolosinska said: “While salaries have been well above average for the last few months, it has been a quiet summer for new vacancies and candidates.
“Now that kids are back at school, we fully expect activity levels to rebound healthily, but we will be watching closely to see if they can match last year’s very busy autumn period.”