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.
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