Results published by a recent survey which was undertaken by the CBI and recruitment consultancy Harvey Nash jointly, have indicated that employees across UK, who have been expecting pay hikes during the coming holiday season, might be hugely disappointed because recession hurt employers say that they are not ready to offer them. While 50% of the country's companies are expected to freeze pays, only 4% employers who participated in the survey were willing to offer pay rises beyond the rate of inflation.

"The worst of the recession may be over but firms remain ultra-cautious about increasing pay. Market conditions continue to be very tough and growth in 2010 will be feeble, so pay is going to be squeezed for some time to come," said John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI.

62% of the surveyed employers said that although they intend to freeze pays for some time, they have managed to maintain "bonus structures despite the recession". Nearly 50% said that UK is now much less attractive as a place to do business than it was about 5 years back.

One good point for the labor market that emerged in the survey was that the number of companies looking to impose a freeze slipped from 61% to 37%, since spring, when the question was last asked.

Although the survey results are worrying, experts are of the opinion that things are slowly getting back on track and will improve manifolds once the economy stabilizes.