“Monitoring the pulse of the City jobs market”
- Job availability in the City up 30% as business confidence rises
- Active jobseekers in the City up 122% year-on-year
London Employment Monitor November 2013 highlights:
- Financial services job opportunities dipped just 2.6% from October 2013 to November 2013.
- The number of professionals actively seeking new jobs increased 122% compared with the same time last year.
- The number of job seekers entering the hiring market decreased by 7.5% October 13 to November 13
- There was an average 15% rise in salaries for those securing new positions in November.
- Rising year on year job availability
The November 2013 London Employment Monitor registered a marginal 2.6% decrease in job availability – from 7,245 vacancies in October 2013 to 7,056 in November 2013. Despite this slight decrease, roles are up by 30% when compared to the same time last year.
Professionals seeking new positions numbered 8,623 in November 2013, up from 9,326 in October 2013. Additionally the number of candidates actively seeking new career opportunities has increased by 122% since November 2012.
Hakan Enver, Operations Director, Morgan McKinley Financial Services, commented:
“Despite a slight pre-Christmas dip in job availability, which we predicted last month, year-on-year there has been terrific growth in City hiring levels. The month-on-month decrease we have seen is indicative of organisations waiting until the New Year to begin the recruitment process, in particular for infrastructure and support functions, where we expect there to be an increase in hiring from January onwards.
“The year-on-year job growth (30%) can be attributed to increased business optimism within the financial services sector as the UK economy continues its recovery. A recent report from accounting firm, BDO, for example, has shown that October signalled ten consecutive months of growing business confidence.
“And this positive sentiment doesn’t just end there. In the last week, the Autumn Statement revealed the upgraded forecast for 2014 of 2.4% growth in the economy, compared with March's 1.8% prediction.
“This mirrors exactly what many of our clients have been predicting, in so far as continued economic recovery will result in higher job volumes next year. The feeling is that recruiting levels will be far over and beyond just replacement hiring, which has been much of the norm this year.
“There continues to be exceptionally strong demand in specific areas within the financial services sector. Much of the volume continues to be on the contract and temporary side, namely within IT, strategy, projects and change and more recently accounting and finance. We are also seeing continued requirements for business critical roles within the regulatory sphere in direct response to stipulations dictated by the UK regulatory body. Compliance, in particular, has seen a drive in regulatory affairs based positions as well as KYC (Know Your Client)/onboarding.
“Despite this demand, however, the challenge we are facing is sourcing candidates that are willing to move jobs in the run up to Christmas. This trend is illustrated in the month-on-month reduction in jobs seekers entering the market during November. Furthermore, the continued boost in confidence has filtered through to the expectations of finance professionals during the next bonus round, paid in Q1 2014. Many prefer to hold on as they expect to see an improved bonus pool compared to the previous year.”
Skills shortage boosting salaries
The average salary increase for those securing new jobs in November 13 was 15%, compared to 12% the previous month.
Enver continued:
“This suggests that as we head towards the end of the year, business critical hires are being signed off, which at the more senior level, has resulted in this slight increase in average change in salary when changing jobs.”