Guess which industry had the highest salary increase in 2012

Big thanks should go to growing consumerism.

Mercer reported:

We see less variation in salary increase percentages forecasted across industries in 2013 (4.1 percent to 4.8 percent), compared to the past two years (4.0 percent to 4.9 percent in 2012; 3.9 percent to 5.5 percent in 2011).

As salaries in the Financial Services industry were hardest hit by the financial crisis, these companies offered the lowest increase among all industries in 2010 and the highest increase among all industries when the economy improved in 2011.

From 2012 however, we saw salary increases across industries stabilizing, with the Financial Services industry reporting an average salary increase of 4.3 percent, close to the overall average of 4.5 percent. Growing consumerism has resulted in the Retail industry reporting the highest salary increase in 2012 (around 4.9 percent); the Pharmaceutical, Consumer and Property industries reported an average salary increase of 4.8 percent. The Aerospace industry reported the lowest increase of 4.0 percent this year.

Despite a generally stabilizing trend, there remain large differences across industries in variable bonus (as a percentage of base salary) being paid.