Five Compete for Each Financial Job in London, U.K. Recruitment Firm Says
Five qualified candidates competed for each job in London’s main financial district in November, a jump from about 1.7 applicants at the start of the year, according to a U.K. recruitment firm.
The ratio was the highest since December 2008 as the number of investment bankers seeking employment rose, Astbury Marsden said in a statement today. New vacancies at financial-services companies fell 16 percent to 2,670 in November from a month earlier as banks battle a faltering economy and a euro crisis, the London-based company said.
“For those City staff who are looking for a new job it means they are being pitted against more intense competition then they may have faced for years,” Mark Cameron, chief operating officer at Astbury Marsden, said in the statement. “For many it will mean more interviews and more rejections before they find the right job.”
Financial companies in western Europe including Barclays Plc (BARC) and HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) have cut about 125,000 jobs this year, according to Bloomberg data, as investment-banking revenue slows amid the sovereign-debt crisis and banks face tougher capital requirements from regulators.
MF Global Holdings Ltd., the parent company of the broker once run by former New Jersey Governor and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) co-chairman Jon Corzine, which employed about 2,870 people, sought bankruptcy protection last month after a wrong-way bet on European sovereign debt.
To contact the reporter on this story: Howard Mustoe in London at hmustoe@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net
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