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Mar 11, 2010
Finance professionals set to abandon UK as employment opportunities take a dive
Finance professionals set to abandon UK as employment opportunities take a dive
Over half of accounting and finance professionals are looking to leave the UK in search of career development elsewhere in Europe. That’s according to a snapshot poll undertaken on behalf of Euro London Appointments, the specialist language recruiter which, as well as its UK base, has offices in Zurich, Luxembourg, Paris, Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf.
The poll, which questioned 147 professionals engaged in finance related jobs revealed that 54% would happily consider opportunities elsewhere in Europe.
“It’s so easy to hop back and forth on cheap airlines these days that a move to Europe wouldn’t phase me said one respondent while another commented “This may be the very time to look at broadening horizons - having international experience when the upturn comes may make us even more marketable.”
In Zurich for example, while there are some negative effects being felt, the Swiss economy is relatively stable. “The Swiss market is buffered by a number of things including a major private banking focus which offers diversification away from the general investment banking focus in other cities, an attractive tax regime for both corporations and individuals, a convenient central location in Europe and Swiss employment laws which give a larger degree of job security than is offered in other countries”, says Bernadette Haslam, Manager of Euro London’s Zurich operation. “We have found that in general Swiss financial institutions are still open to hiring and are very interested in the high quality candidates now available in the UK - however candidates with previous connections to Switzerland are preferred because they have an additional driver to relocate and probably won't just get on a plane back to London once the market improves again. Languages are also important in most positions here (although not all) so Brits with at least conversational German or French will have more chance.”
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