Salaries of civil engineers have fallen for the first time in seven years according to the Institution of Civil Engineers' annual survey.

The average income for civil engineers in the UK dropped by 0.3%to £47,282 in the 2008 tax year, breaking a steady run of increases since the survey's inception in 2003.  Total salary, which includes secondary income and bonuses, fell by 1.7% to £51,899. This was due to significant drops in secondary income (21.5%), overtime income (7.6%) and bonuses (13.2%).

The fall has not affected all workers equally. The survey showed those on lower salaries have been affected more severely, with the bottom 10% of earners seeing significant falls in basic income of 6%. Conversely, the top 10% of earners saw moderate increases of 1.2 %.

Job security was also a concern, with just 57% rating their job as secure or very secure. This sense of insecurity was highest among those classified as project workers, 18% of whom categorised themselves as on potentially shaky ground.

A significant proportion of members - 63% - stated that their company had resorted to redundancies in response to the economic downturn. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this was more likely to be the response of companies with a big employee roster (69% of companies employing 500 or more civil engineers, compared to 52% of companies employing 50 or fewer civil engineers).

Pay and hiring freezes also featured prominently in the list of measures taken (56% and 49% respectively). Pay cuts had affected less than 10%.

Other UK findings included an increase in average total starting salary for 2008 graduates of 2.6% to £23,965.

Internationally, Hong Kong salary remains almost unchanged at £55,661 but total salary drops 3.4% to £61,769. Both these figures are significantly higher than corresponding UK figures, 18% and 19% respectively. Job security is very high, with 70% rating their role as secure or very secure.

Average UAE basic income is 32% higher than in the UK, at £62,215. However, job security is much lower, with only 37% considering their roles to be secure or very secure.

The ICE's latest Salary Survey polled almost 9,000 members across the UK, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates in June 2009.  The full report can be found at http://www.ice.org.uk/salarysurvey09