Job openings in London’s financial services industry declined for the seventh straight month last month and the industry is likely to remain weak for the next year, a survey by recruitment firm Morgan McKinley said.
The number of vacant positions fell 16 percent last month to 8,568 from a year earlier, the London-based firm said in a statement yesterday.
Three out of four executives said it’s harder to get approval to hire staff than a year ago.
Securities firms in London and New York have eliminated more than 100,000 jobs in the past year as investment banking revenue declines and the pace of takeovers sinks to a three-year low, data compiled by Bloomberg indicated.
The Bank of England earlier this month predicted virtually no growth over the next year and said at least one quarter of contraction is possible, its most downbeat assessment of the British economy in a decade.
“Considerable levels of uncertainty remain within the financial services industry and in turn, the recruitment market,” Robert Thesiger, chief executive officer of Imprint Plc, Morgan McKinley’s parent, said in the monthly survey.
Most financial services employers remain cautious about salary packages, with 66 percent of those surveyed expecting pay to stay flat, Morgan McKinley said. Still, salaries in the City of London, the country’s main financial district, rose 6 percent from June to US$99,700 from the previous month, the survey said.
Morgan McKinley said it surveyed 161 executives in the first week of this month.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS