London Employment Monitor September 12 highlights:
- The number of available financial services job opportunities in London decreased from August 12 to September 12 by 19%
- Compared to September 11 this was also a drop of 43%
- The number of professionals entering the financial services hiring market dropped by 12% in September 12 month-on-month
- Comparing September 11 to September 12 there was a 56% decrease in professionals new to the jobs market
- The average salary offer increase for those offered jobs in September 12 was 17% higher than in September 11.
City job availability drops in September
The Morgan McKinley London Employment Monitor registered a 19% decline in the number of job vacancies, dropping from 2,709 down to 2,205 in September 12. This was also a decrease of 43% compared to September 11, with a decrease from 3,843.
The number of new professionals entering the hiring market fell for the fourth consecutive month dropping by 12% from 4,315 to 3,799. In addition, the number of job seeking professionals was significantly higher at this time last year, with the number falling by 56% from a level of 8,610 from September 11 to 3,799 September 12.
Hakan Enver, Operations Director, Morgan McKinley Financial Services commented: “A drop of 19% in job opportunities in September 12 is unexpected following the upturn that we saw in August 12. We anticipated this upward fluctuation would continue, however the decrease does broadly follow the pattern of hiring activity across the City in the last six years. Each year from August to September job availability has fallen; the difference this month is the size of the decline which means we are now at the lowest number of available jobs since December 11.
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“This fall continues to highlight the strain on banks to invest in top talent. This will be further exacerbated by hiring managers reviewing budgets and resource requirements vs. headcount restrictions for Q4; potentially causing them to hold off on releasing new jobs to the market until the New Year.
“While in the past, there has been greater visibility of seasonal trends across the financial services hiring market, quite the opposite has been the case in the last 12 months. From talking to various financial institutions across London, there is very little consistency in hiring plans for both the immediate and longer term future.
“A number of factors are currently at play which could explain this: pending redundancies; banks selling off once profitable business units; select critical hiring only; ongoing sign-off for longer term investment decisions; and continuing change projects. Where one bank suggests that the recruitment trend will stay flat in Q4, another is confident that volumes will increase.”
Compensation rises, although professional job seeker numbers fall
There was a 17% difference between the average salary increase in September 11 (£7,605) compared to September 12 (£8,929).
Hakan Enver continues: “Tracking the average change in new salaries offered by financial institutions provides a real perspective of what employers are willing to pay to attract talent in the current market. Interestingly, despite a 12% drop in professionals entering the jobs market month-on-month in September 12, compensation levels have risen, with those securing offers this month earning an average of almost £9,000 more than their previous role.
“A recent survey from the Office of National Statistics identified that bonuses across banking and insurance continue to remain higher than any other industry sector across the UK. However, with continued regulatory and cost pressure in recent years to reduce the size of overall bonus pools, there was a 9% fall in bonuses paid out to employees in the financial services and insurance sectors from 2010/11 to 2011/12. Despite this, in the context of overall compensation levels financial services remains a rewarding career for those professionals with a broad range of skills and qualifications.”
