City job vacancies have risen by 121% in Q1, according to research from financial services recruitment firm Astbury Marsden.

The research shows that 11,020 roles were created, up from 4,970 in the first quarter of 2009.
 
New candidate registrations also rose by 21% in the first quarter of 2010 on Q1 2009.

Astbury Marsden predicts that there will be 53,000 City job vacancies in 2010, which is a 26% increase on the 42,000 roles in 2009.
 
Mark Cameron, chief operating officer at Astbury Marsden, adds: “Most of these vacancies will arise through the churn of staff from one bank to another but there are also new roles being created.”
 

Elsewhere, global recruiter Ambition predicts banking and financial services job vacancies in the City will reach 2007 levels by August 2010, driven by growth in the equities market over the past year.

The firm also says vacancies in the banking and financial services sector have increased by an average of 19.8% every quarter, and when applying this growth to quarters two and three of 2010 it expects a return to pre-credit crunch levels in late summer 2010.

Tim Gilbert, managing director of Ambition UK, previously Witan Jardine, says: “The second half of 2009 and start of 2010 has seen rapid growth in the City. Banks have repaired their balance sheets through Government aid or rights issues, commodity prices are rising, and recovery stocks being sold heavily.

“As a result the FTSE has been going from strength to strength and many banks, brokers and trading houses have been piling into equities – making money while the going is good. This has lead to a significant increase in demand for staff to support these areas of growth.”