City workers’ satisfaction with their bonuses could reduce their willingness to move jobs, according to the latest Morgan McKinley employment index.

Over half (54%) of the survey’s respondents said they were happy with their bonuses this year, compared with 40% last year.

Before they got their bonus payouts, 61% of City workers intended to change jobs. But, post-bonus, only 52% intend to look for new opportunities. Yet average bonuses were just 31% of base salary, compared with 33% last year.

However, half of respondents at support/admin level received no bonus at all. This survey said this explained why 57% of people in the lower salary range were planning to change jobs, compared with 47% of senior professionals.

“The City managed bonus expectations well this year,” said Robert Thesiger, managing director of Morgan McKinley. “The majority of City workers have been less disappointed with their bonus than first predicted.”

There were double the number of candidates on the market in January: 6,940 compared with 3,360 the previous year. The number of job vacancies in the City stood at 9,198 in January 2005, a significant increase on 3,481 in January 2004.