Self-employed plumbers experienced an 11% year-on-year increase in earnings to £1,142 in January 2025, despite a typical seasonal dip and a 3.8% decrease from December 2024 due to adverse weather conditions.
This is according to the latest figures from Hudson Contract, a provider of business services to the construction industry.
The January slowdown varied significantly across trades. Surfacing contractors saw the steepest decline at 14.7%, followed by bricklaying at 13.2%, largely due to adverse weather conditions including heavy rain, snow and a named storm that affected outdoor work and cement-based activities. Other trades proved more resilient to the seasonal dip: equipment and operator hire saw only a 2% reduction, while insulation – alongside plumbing – limited its decrease to 3.8%.
Commenting on the findings, managing director Ian Anfield says: “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 couple of weeks off afterward. 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.”
Ian Anfield adds the strong year-on-year growth was likely a combination of sustained demand and the ongoing shortage of skilled workers. He said: “We’re also seeing that tight household budgets mean tradespeople 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.”
Hudson provides earnings data not available from any other source. The numbers are compiled every month from the day-by-day information we receive from our 2,600 construction SMEs.
