eFinancialCareers Quarterly Jobs Barometer

eFinancialCareers Quarterly Jobs Barometer

City recruitment rates weather the storm

Despite almost daily news reports of redundancies in the City, the latest quarterly Jobs Barometer by eFinancialCareers shows only a slight  decrease in the number of job opportunities in the UK financial sector in Q3 – down 2% on the second quarter.  And when comparing year on year, the total number of UK jobs posted on the site in Q3 2011 was up 17% over Q3 2010.  Looking further ahead, early indications from October suggest further modest retractions in the number of job opportunities with October being 2% down on September.

The best performers

When looking at Q3 2011 over the preceding quarter, solid growth was recorded in private equity/venture capital (up 34%), investment banking/M&A (up 12%), sales & marketing (also up 12%), and corporate banking (up 10%). However, these uplift numbers mask the drop-off recorded in the calendar month of September over August in these same sectors.  September new job opportunities in private equity/venture capital were down 22% over August, investment banking/M&A down 21% and corporate banking down 18%. Of Q3’s four fastest growing sectors, only sales and marketing saw the summer rise continue in September, up 16%.

The underperformers

Off-setting the positive advances in the quarter were declines in operations (down 15%), private banking/wealth management (down 11%), and risk management off 10%.

James Bennett, Managing Director of EMEA and APAC, comments: “Reflecting the challenging market conditions, City hiring managers and recruiters are anticipating slower hiring ahead.  The next few quarters will likely be a defining moment for the City – and in turn its employment levels - with much riding on the Eurozone’s ability to put is sovereign debt issues in order and the impact any agreed rescue packages may have on the balance sheets of the major investment banks.”  

The eFinancialCareers Quarterly Barometer tracks UK positions advertised on eFinancialCareers in sectors where there is a minimum level of 300 advertised jobs a month for the quarter. Sectors qualifying for the UK Barometer for the three months ended 30 September 2011 were Private Equity / Venture Capital, Investment Banking / M & A, Sales & Marketing, Corporate Banking, Credit, Consultancy, Research, Trading, Debt / Fixed Income, Hedge Funds, Accounting & Finance, Commodities, Derivatives, Information Technology, Equities, FX & Money Markets, Asset Management, Capital Markets, Quantitative Analytics, Compliance / Legal, Risk Management, Private Banking / Wealth Management, Operations.