Buoyed by the recent economic improvement, many are looking to better their career prospects with new employers, the research says.
Some 58% say they are unhappy with their current salary and are looking for better pay. The average salary across the industry is £38,625, but figures vary greatly between sub-sectors.
In building services, 21% of workers earned £15,000 or under last year. In contrast, 10% of built environment professionals working in the oil and gas sectors earned £100,000 in the same period.
The research also found 60% of workers in the industry are unhappy with their current employee benefits, with 59% believing they would have better promotion prospects elsewhere.
Of the benefits workers valued the most, both guaranteed bonus and performance-related bonuses came joint top - 10% asked said these were the benefits that they wanted above any others.
Salary was the main driver for people looking to move: 63% of employees asked quoted this as the thing they were looking to improve in a new role. The next biggest factor was job security at 57%.
Rob Searle, commercial director at CareerStructure.com, said these results demonstrate the challenge ahead for companies looking to retain their workforces. "Jobseekers are clearly eager for more in 2014,” he said.
“As industry confidence grows, the desire for change will build so we expect to see a lot of switching in 2014. Employers will need to work harder than ever to retain their talent, as jobseekers consider locations abroad and at home which offer bolstered remuneration packages.”
