However, in line with typical seasonal patterns due to holidays and weather, January 2025 earnings were 7.5% lower than in December 2024.

The January slowdown varied significantly across trades. Surfacing contractors saw the steepest decline in December at 14.7%, followed by bricklaying at 13.2%, mainly due to weather conditions.

Other trades proved more resilient to the seasonal dip, with equipment and operator hire seeing only a 2% reduction, while insulation and plumbing limited their decreases to 3.8%.

Hudson Contract managing director Ian Anfield said: “January is historically slower due to a staggered return to work. Tradespeople typically maximise their hours in December to boost earnings before Christmas, knowing they’ll have a few weeks off afterwards.

“This year’s challenging weather conditions particularly hit outdoor trades – you can’t work with anything that’s got water in it when you’ve got heavy rain, snow and low temperatures, which is why bricklayers were hit harder than plumbers who can work inside or are busy fixing boilers.”

He said that the strong year-on-year growth was likely a combination of sustained demand and the ongoing shortage of workers.

He added: “We’re also seeing that tight household budgets mean people are less likely to take extended breaks during bad weather – they’re keen to get back to earning. And importantly, order books have proven more resilient than media headlines might suggest with the housing sector still building, albeit with phased plot releases on some schemes that a couple of years ago would have been sold out off-plan.”