The volume of new London financial services jobs coming to market at the start of the year hit levels not seen in January since 2010, according to data from City recruiter Morgan McKinley.
The number of jobs available fell by 35 per cent year-on-year compared with January 2017, as many financial firms await clarity on transitional arrangements on Brexit.
January tends to see a jump in the number of new jobs to market as firms look ahead, a trend confirmed by the 80 per cent surge in new jobs to market last month compared to December. In December the number of jobs available fell by half during a period of heightened uncertainty before the government confirmed it would try to negotiate a Brexit transitional period.
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The Bank of England is among the organisations who have called for a transitional period to secure companies' trading relationships with the EU after March 2019 as soon as possible, alongside almost every major business organisation.
Hakan Enver, operations director at Morgan McKinley, said: "Professionals looking for jobs are now half of what they were in the January preceding Brexit. It’s startling to see this figure continue its post-Brexit freefall so many months after the referendum.”
The number of people looking for jobs fell by 27 per cent year-on-year, even after a similar month-on-month bounceback compared to December.
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The end of the current bonus season could have a "marginal" effect on job searches as workers take their awards for the year, Morgan McKinley said, although the effect of bonus season on the City labour market has diminished since post-financial crisis restrictions were put in place.
UK-wide data published yesterday by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, based on recruiter surveys, shows that starting salaries for job-movers are rising at the fastest pace in almost three years. However, that strong signal has yet to be matched by wages across the economy, as the number of people feeling secure enough to look for new work stumbles.