If you're setting an analyst pay band, start with the state of play. Recruitment across the UK has cooled. The labour market is currently described as 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment but only slight increases in redundancies, and vacancies have dropped below pre-pandemic levels Low Pay Commission Report 2025, GOV.UK.
What does that mean for your band? Fewer openings don't always mean easier hiring. When vacancies are scarce, the people worth hiring often sit tight, so the postings that do go live set the reference point. To compare your band well, look at what's being advertised now, not what roles paid last year.
Seniority drives the band, and the financial-services sector skews senior. In this sector, recruitment was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles, rather than RQF 3-5 GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report. RQF 6 maps to degree-level work, so most live analyst postings assume strong formal qualifications.
Why does this matter for comparison? If your analyst role sits at RQF 6+, benchmark it against postings at the same level. Comparing a degree-level analyst band with lower-qualification roles understates what the market expects, and your offer looks off before anyone reads it.
One practical check: if your band sits at the bottom of what live postings advertise, expect a slower, narrower response. In a 'low hire' market Low Pay Commission Report 2025, GOV.UK, a band that reflects current postings is what gets the right people to reply.
We search 15 million candidates to surface analysts who match your role, seniority and qualifications, so you can see how your band reads against the people you actually want to reach. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. If you're ready to compare your band against live, matched people, start with Reed.ai today.
