City job vacancies ended 2011 on a low note

City job vacancies ended 2011 on a low note

But only down 8% overall for the year

Two big employment trends continue – cost-cutters and regulatory staff

The total number of new City job vacancies created in 2011 (year ending December 31 2011) fell 8% to approximately 54,020 down from 58,830 in 2010 says Astbury Marsden, a leading financial services recruitment firm.

However, the total figure for 2011 masks the deterioration in the City job market towards the end of last year, when only 1,490 jobs were created in December 2011 down 43% from 2,620 in December 2010.

Mark Cameron, Chief Operating Officer at Astbury Marsden, comments: “After starting the year on something of a hiring high, 2011 finished on a low note with a marked slump in the number of new City jobs created.”

“Although there were well over 50,000 new City jobs created last year many of them were replacements for staff leaving for other jobs rather than brand new roles. Many of the genuinely new jobs that were created were to deal with the legacy of the banking crisis.”

Astbury Marsden says that they are still seeing relatively strong recruitment of transformation and change staff who know how to trim costs, improve efficiencies by reengineering how the banks work and help them adapt to the new regulatory environment.

Adds Mark Cameron: “The great reregulation and the changing face of the City does cause a concern to banks and funds over how their long term profitability will be affected.In the short term, while they continue to grapple with adopting the multitude of new regulations and adapting their business models to cater for the increased costs of funding, demand will remain for regulatory and change management experts.”

Astbury Marsden says that although the Eurozone crisis has most directly impacted continental European banks it has been a huge drag on IPOs, M&A activity and in turnover on stock markets throughout the world.

Mark Cameron adds: “At the moment the Eurozone crisis hangs over everything like a cloud and until the political solution is seen as delivered we expect City hiring to remain moderate.”

Astbury Marsden explains that the decrease in the number of new jobs and the high number of candidates looking for new roles means that the number of qualified staff pursuing each City job vacancy rose by almost half between 2010 and 2011.

There were 3.16 qualified candidates for each City role in 2011. In 2010 there was an average of just 2.17 qualified candidates per job.

Adds Mark Cameron: “Although institutions who are looking to hire are able to choose from much higher calibre candidates, relatively few employers are taking advantage of this better recruitment climate.”