Mon, 12 May 2014Hiring in the City surged in April as banks and other financial institutions and businesses stepped up hiring, according to professional services recruiter Morgan McKinley. 

The firm’s Employment Monitor shows a 67% rise in job opportunities to 8,955 compared with 5,355 recorded in April 2013.

The number of candidates actively seeking employment dipped 23% between March and April this year as a result of the Easter break, however, year-on-year jobseekers increased by 41%.

Hakan Enver, operations director, Morgan McKinley Financial Services, says: “The annual growth figure of 67% is proof of the massive resurgence we’ve seen in the permanent hiring market, as institutions seek to invest in long-term talent to drive business growth.

Enver says that while the announcement of 19,000 job cuts within Barclays in 2014 “is naturally going to be a degree of unease in the financial services sector over the coming months” and investment bank profits are down, “ their asset management, wealth and retail arms, are in a much better shape, with all of these areas experiencing a healthy increase in job flow.  

 “We predict that the upward trend in City jobs growth will continue…Considering this time last year experts were talking about the possibility of a triple dip recession, the financial services sector has definitely bounced back.”

These latest figures reinforce optimistic comments made by recruiters to recruiter.co.uk last week.

Chart 1: Financial services jobs new to the market April 2014
Chart 2: Jobseekers available, both in and out of employment April 2014