From rising pay to competition to keep accountants, a recruitment agency has laid bare the landscape in the East Anglian labour market.

Here are some of the highlights from the Cooper Lomaz Recruitment Trends and Salary Survey 2018.

On the move

Half of employees expect staff numbers to increase at their companies in 2018 – 50% of respondents up from 48% in 2017.

Only 30% of employees had been with their current company for more than three years, however 34% of contractors had been in their current role for more than a year.

More than half 56.7% of workers said they did not expect to remain with their current employer for more than three years.

Pay on the up

Two-thirds (67.2%) of employees are expecting a pay rise in 2018 with 63.6% reporting an increase in salary in 2017.

Safe as houses

There has been an increase in the security employees feel about their jobs – up to 58% feeling secure compared to 51% last year.

Keeping flexible

A surge has been seen in flexible working hours with 69.5% of workers working different hours to find a better work/life balance, up from 43% the year before.

Employees are also prepared to take a pay cut to improve their hours with 35.6% saying they would lose out on cash if it meant fewer working hours.

How the landscape might change

Cooper Lomaz is predicting that the advent of robots, artificial intelligence and automation will bring an end to some careers but not others.

The recruiter believed product developers, design engineers, graphic designers and cyber security experts are safe while those in payroll departments, telemarketers, service desk analysts and data entry clerks may want to start considering alternative roles.

Norfolk edged out Suffolk and Essex when it came to average salary with median pay of £37,360 compared to Suffolk's £33,315 and £34,875 in Essex.

East Anglia's gender pay gap was revealed to be £6,765 with men averaging £39,328 and women £32,563 – a difference of 17.2%.

Of the sectors Cooper Lomaz covers IT came out top of the pay scale, with an average wage of £49,697, while engineering ran out bottom, at £40,127.