The Travel News monthly salary surveys have shown some of the trends in agents’ earnings over the seven months January to July.
In those seven months, the most obvious trend was that every month, most of the respondents fell into the group that said they were earning 0-19% of their previous salary. This includes those who said they were unemployed due to Covid. They made up 43% of respondents in January, and through a couple of ups and downs on the graph, they still made up 41% of respondents in July.
There has been a small improvement in the middle band – people earning 60-79% of their salary went from 12% of respondents in January to 14% in July. People earning 80-99% of their salary rose from 4% of respondents in January to 8% in July.
But the number of people earning 100% of their former salary has dropped over the seven-month period. In January, they formed 15% of respondents, rising to 17% of respondents in May, but the number dropped off to just 10% of respondents in July.
But last week’s Travel News poll showed that a flame of optimism is flickering in the industry. We asked the question: ‘Are sales in your agency improving?’ 51% of respondents answered ‘Yes’.
That’s good news indeed.
