Latest eFinancialCareers survey reveals City salary expectations fall

Ö but desire to stay in finance remains entrenched

As the financial crisis begins to impact the broader economy, the latest survey of eFinancialCareers, the UK-based global financial careers website, shows that employees in the financial services sector are now beginning to count the real cost.

Based on a survey of 517 financial professionals during the first two weeks of November, 60% of all respondents said they would accept a pay-cut to secure a new job whether they were currently in or out of work.

And the percentage drops they would be likely to accept are significant: 50% of all those who said they would accept a cut were willing to take a 10-25% drop, 14% a 25-50% reduction, and 5% were prepared to accept half of their former pay for the right job. The remaining 31% said they would accept no more than a 10% reduction.

Not surprisingly, those who had lost their jobs were prepared to make the greatest sacrifices: 57% were prepared to take a 10-25% cut and 18% a 25-50% reduction. Indeed, all of the financial professionals surveyed who were currently out of work - without exception - accepted that their pay packets would have to be lower than their previous job if they were to get back into the market.

However, despite the significant number of redundancies across the financial sector, only 7% of those surveyed who were out of work were actively looking outside of the City for a new job.

Founder and CEO of eFinancialCareers, John Benson, commented:
ìWhilst recruitment activity continues in some areas of financial services, many who have recently lost their jobs will have to be far more flexible in their choice of career path going forward: returning to the Square Mile in the short term might simply not be a choice for many. Similarly, finance professionals intent on securing a new position may have to face up to a salary cut far bigger than most are currently willing to stomach, particularly if they leave the City.î

Of those who participated in the eFinancialCareers survey, 37% were currently out of employment – of whom 22% had been laid-off in the last 4 weeks, and 45% within the last 12 weeks.

In 2007, the median UK salary based on weekly earnings was 24,908; in October 2008 the average City salary was 48,021.