City hiring on the up despite blip
London’s financial services firms are still hiring more heavily than a year ago, even though available jobs in November dipped five per cent from October.
Vacancies in November were up nine per cent from a year earlier, while the number of people looking for new jobs shot up by 22 per cent, an employment study by recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley showed.
While vacancies dropped from October – following a traditional year-end slowdown in the City job market as staff stay put during a looming bonus round – the number of employees registering their interest in changing jobs rose by three per cent month on month.
The turmoil in the markets sparked by sovereign debt worries across Europe has not dampened this year’s recruitment drive, but confidence at financial services firms such as banks did take a hit this year, making the job market outlook more uncertain, according to Andrew Evans, managing director at Morgan McKinley.
“Visibility is often not great,” said Evans, adding that he nonetheless expects hiring this month to be up on December 2009.
Recruitment levels have yet to match pre-crisis ones, Evans said, putting this year’s figures “midway between the dizzy heights (of hiring) of between 2005 and 2007 and the lowest point in late 2008.”
Average salaries for new employees were up six per cent in November month on month, the survey showed.