A quarter of workers in the North East are struggling to pay their bills, and 40% say they can’t save for their future, research shows

This comes from new research by recruitment company, Reed, which also found that 40% of employees in the region feel their current salaries don’t pay enough for them to meet their financial goals, such as purchasing a house or saving for their retirement.

The research also highlighted that 43% of workers in the North East say they’re working over their contracted hours each week – clocking up an average of 7.2 hours in overtime. 43% say the overtime they work is necessary because they have more work to do than working hours in their day and 39% say it’s because their job role and responsibilities require it.

When asked if they’re compensated for the extra hours they work, only 31% of workers in the North East say they’re paid overtime, 29% said they could accrue their hours, while, more than a third (34%) said they aren’t compensated in any way.

Charlotte Rickwood, Regional Manager at Reed, said: “ More than a quarter of the North East’s population is classed as economically inactive, almost 4% higher than the UK average. With this in mind, employees may feel they need to pick up the slack or put in additional hours to account for a lack of resource.

“In addition to a shortage of staff, local businesses are continuing to struggle to meet rising costs and taxes. Clocking extra hours could be a sign of people wanting to prove their worth to avoid their roles being made redundant if businesses are having to make cuts, or simply an indication of businesses stretching their workforce as much as they can to make the books balance.

“What we do know, however, is that reviving the North East’s workforce and bringing more people into the workforce has never been more critical.”

As part of its annual salary guides research, Reed analysed more than 21 million job adverts and asked 5,000 workers across the UK regions a range of questions on their salary and work life. The research also looked at how many hours UK employees work per week and how much they are compensated for it.

Reed has produced a suite of 10 sector-specific salary guides, you can download them here.