Slump drags finance jobs to eight-year low
THE COLLAPSE in UK finance jobs continued apace in December, with the number of persons working in regulated jobs falling to its lowest level since 2004, according to new data published yesterday.
Just 153,835 people are now on the Financial Services Authority’s approved persons list – down 10.6 per cent on the February 2008 peak, analysts at Imas revealed.
The banking sector led the decline with a 17.2 per cent fall, taking the number of staff on the register down to 36,380. Large-scale savings programmes – Swiss bank UBS is cutting 11,000 jobs while Bank of America is losing 16,000 – are set to roll on for several years.
“Big banks have high cost bases, and have been hit hard – there is very little activity in bond, equity and derivatives markets, so they are cutting back,” said Robert Harbron from the Centre for Economics and Business Research, which estimates more than 100,000 City jobs have been lost since the financial crisis.
In addition it is very hard to set up a new bank, which could also drag down approved staff levels.
But a few areas have seen growth, with the number in investment advice roles up 7.7 per cent.