Financial recruitment declined in April, according to the Morgan McKinley London Employment Monitor.

The volume of new job vacancies in April were down by 20% on the previous month and declined by 69% compared to April 2008.

Jobseekers took an average of 61 days to get a new job, four days longer than it would have taken them a year ago.

The number of financial services professionals who started looking for new work in April 2009 fell 4% on March 2009 and 40% compared to a year ago (April 2008), while average City pay registered £52,106, 7% up on the same month last year (April 2008).
 
Andrew Evans, managing director of Morgan McKinley, says: “While the decrease in new City job vacancies was to be expected in April 2009 as the month included the Easter break, it did put an end to the small uplifts in hiring seen during the previous three months of the year.

“It is clear from these figures that recruitment activity continues to be at reduced levels compared with a year ago and the sizeable gap between the number of new candidates and vacancies highlights that the financial services jobs market in London is still extremely competitive.”