The job hunt begins as City workers make most of recovery
THE NUMBER of finance workers looking for a new job doubled in the last month as City staffers began the new year wanting to move up the career ladder, according to new figures out today.
Recruiter Morgan McKinley found 8,328 professionals seeking a new position in January, up from 4,214 in December.
The 98 per cent increase is bigger than the usual January surge and points to renewed optimism in the square mile. Compared with January last year, the figure represents a 64 per cent increase.
At the same time businesses are advertising 7,623 vacancies, up 86 per cent on the 4,095 on offer in December.
“As economic confidence hit a record high, job vacancies have risen at the fastest rate since 1998,” said Morgan McKinley’s Hakan Enver.
“This has been particularly evident within the contract market where we have not only seen heightened demand, but also a reduction in the time to hire.”
“While historically contractors could expect three or four interview rounds before an offer, today we are seeing this reduced to one or two.”
Internal audit, corporate finance and credit risk experts are all in particularly high demand.
However, those firms doing the hiring are more subdued than the job seekers – the figure is down six per cent on the number of vacancies last January.