City boosted by more vacancies and higher pay

After the traditional summer lull, City job prospects turned brighter in September.

The number of vacancies in London financial services rose 8 per cent last month from August while those job seekers lucky enough to find posts were taken on salaries 15 per cent higher, according to recruiter Morgan McKinley.

The firm’s operations director Hakan Enver said: “Following an anticipated drop in vacancies in July and August, which can be attributed to seasonal factors, there is a renewed energy within London’s financial services sector and the volume of vacancies is again on the rise. The positive news, however, is that the financial services sector is now on a noticeable road to recovery.”

While the number of vacancies in September rose to 7,371 from 6,804 in August, this was still lower than the same month a year ago, when vacancies totalled 9,072. Last month also saw professionals looking for new positions totalling 7,082, up 21 per cent from 5,816 in August.

Mr Enver said: “There has been strong demand for advisory compliance professionals over the first nine months of the year and there are no signs of this slowing as we head towards Christmas. This demand is evident across the full sphere of product specialisms, including, but not limited to, debt capital markets, equity capital markets, equities sales and trading, credit and rates trading and structured products.”

He added that many firms were now hiring at senior levels, including up to managing director, which helped push up salary rates. There is also an element of firms having to raise base salary offers to counter tighter regulations on bankers’ bonuses.