Design Week Salary Survey 2007

Everyone wants to be wanted.

And if you are a designer, that is precisely the situation that you probably find yourself in now.

But, according to our latest salary survey, you shouldn't necessarily expect this to translate into a bigger pay packet, although employers may be finding other ways of keeping you happy.

If, however, you work in account management, the outlook is not quite so rosy, and you may have to accept a little less.

In our last survey, conducted at the end of 2005, we found a volatile market in which there was little upward pressure on salaries, and even some marked drops for the top jobs.

The picture our new survey paints is more complicated.

Buoyancy is a word much favoured by recruitment consultants - it's one we've heard a lot of recently - and they are much more confident about the market now than they have been for a long time.

Yet the figures they supply do not show salary increases, even for areas such as digital design where demand is intense.

Few designers' salaries have outpaced inflation, and those for new management roles seem to have weakened significantly.

However, nearly all are agreed that it's a candidate-led market.