City hiring levels remain bouyant
Job opportunities in London’s financial services sector grew at the start of Q3 10 with an increase of 7% in roles new to the market, from 5,645 in June 10 to 6,048 in July 10. There was also an increase on July 09 recruitment levels with a 71% rise from 3,528 to 6,048. This shows sustained activity in City hiring in July 10, with job opportunities at their second highest level since August 08.
Fewer professionals entered London’s financial services jobs market in July 10 with a decrease of 16% from 12,090 in June 10 to 10,170, partly as a result of the start of the summer holiday period. Compared to July 09 however, there was a 23% increase in professionals looking for new roles from 8,250 to 10,170 in July 10.
Andrew Evans, Managing Director, Morgan McKinley Financial Services commented:
“July 10 has seen a healthy 7% increase in financial services job opportunities compared to the previous month. This is the second highest level of hiring activity, not only this year, but since August 08, illustrating that the jobs market for professionals in financial services continues to follow a steady pace of recovery. Over the last few months, our Employment Monitor has said that hiring will continue to be maintained in H2, although not necessarily at the same rate as the first half of the year. Q1 10 was particularly strong as the market received a boost following signs of economic recovery. The increase in recruitment levels at the start of July is a good indication that institutions will continue to recruit, although we are expecting fluctuations in hiring levels over the remainder of the year.
“This outlook must be balanced with caution as recent events such as global sovereign debt; reduction in UK consumer confidence; austerity measures and more recently speculation of a double dip recession in the US, have all led to an increased lack of visibility. We are yet to see how these issues will affect the recruitment market in H2 10.
“We’ve seen fewer professionals looking for jobs in July 10 with a 16% decrease compared to the previous month. This shows a correction from a particularly high level in recent months as individuals responded to increasing demand from banks and other institutions across the City in the first half of the year. It also reflects the start of the summer holiday season with individuals waiting until the summer period is over before considering a job move.”
City salaries show slight decrease
The average salary for professionals securing jobs in July 10 saw a slight downward fluctuation of 3% compared to the average salary for roles that were filled in June 10.
Andrew Evans continued, “Average salary levels for roles secured in the last few months have shown little variation, with fluctuations likely to be due to differences in the volume of hiring from the junior end of the jobs market to the senior end, month-on-month.
Although some pockets of the financial services market have seen remuneration rise in line with increased demand, institutions have generally kept salaries fairly steady this year. Our March 10 Bonus Survey highlighted this when only 4.9% of respondents said their base salary had been increased to compensate for a reduction in bonuses and just over a third (37%) were earning higher salaries than the previous year compared to the majority (60%) who said their salary remained similar to the same time last year.”
