London Finance Job Vacancies Fell 35% Last Year, Recruiter Says

Job vacancies at London financial- services companies fell by more than a third last year as banks cut staff in response to tighter regulation and weaker securities markets, recruitment firm Astbury Marsden said.

New vacancies in the British capital’s City and Canary Wharf financial districts dipped 35 percent to 35,115 in 2012, down from 54,025 in 2011, the London-based recruiter said in a statement today. There were about 800 new City jobs available in December, compared with about 1,490 in the same month in 2011, the recruiter said.

“Tighter regulation, including higher capital requirements, forced up costs at a time when revenues dipped due to factors including a continued weak economy and less trading activity,” said Mark Cameron, chief operating officer at Astbury Marsden in London. “Senior management in banks took very decisive action and implemented major structural changes, including winding down entire units.”

Securities firms have been shedding staff to reduce costs as the debt crisis curbed trading and stock and bond offerings slumped. Citigroup Inc., whose European investment-banking headquarters is based in London, said last month it will cut about 11,000 jobs globally. UBS AG (UBSN) announced it’s eliminating 10,000 jobs, about 15 percent of the workforce, over three years as it dismantles parts of its investment bank.

“Hopefully, we are now behind the worst of the cost- cutting,” Cameron said. “Although banks may still tinker with staffing numbers, most of the obvious and immediate cuts are likely to have now been made.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Liam Vaughan in London at lvaughan6@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at eevans3@bloomberg.net