City hiring freeze shows signs of easing
The recruitment freeze in the City is beginning to thaw with firms cautiously hiring again after the financial crisis, according to recruiters.
Momentum gained in the employment market in June has been maintained through July, once the seasonal summer slowdown is taken into account, figures released yesterday by Morgan Mckinley, a recruiter in the Square Mile, show.
New job vacancies in the financial services sector increased 20 per cent in June from May’s levels - the highest so far this year. The number fell 7 per cent in July from June, but it remained the second highest this year.
“While recruitment continues to be at very suppressed levels compared to 2008, hiring is occurring across most areas within the City’s financial services industry, particularly at the manager level and above,” said Andrew Evans, managing director of Morgan Mckinley’s financial services division.
The catalysts for the recovery are improved investor confidenceand financial markets. Banks that have emerged from the financial crisis relatively unscathed are boosting ranks with proven performers in project management, regulatory compliance, risk auditing and financial controls.
Recruiters said some employers might have made too many workers redundant at the start of the recession and were discreetly refilling positions, while others just wanted to take advantage of the large amount of talent available.
Most recruiters acknowledged that the jobs market was moving again, but they were treating the evidence with extreme caution. The Morgan Mckinley figures show there were still 59 per cent fewer job opportunities in July than a year ago.
“Recruitment ended in the middle of last year and picked up a month or so ago,” said Robert Walters of Robert Walters, one of the four big UK-listed recruitment agencies in the City. “But it’s hard to know whether it’s going to hold.”
Recruiters said the market was more likely to be stabilising than growing. The big four - Hays, Michael Page, Robert Walters and S3 - have been resoundingly downbeat in market updates. Most have reported a halving of income from permanent job placements in the past year and income from temporary placements down by a fifth.
Michael Page, which derives about a 10th of its profit from banking - mainly the recruiting of back-office staff - said yesterday there were signs of stabilisation in that business as some banks took on additional workers.
But with profits halving in the first six months of 2009, Steve Ingham, chief executive, reiterated his warning that the next six months would be challenging. There would need to be real signs of growth in the economy before there was any real improvement in the jobs market, he said.
By Gill Plimmer in London | Published: August 18 2009
Jenrick CPI (Specialist I.T. Recruitment Consultancy) have experienced a mixed response to current hiring conditions.
Chris Chilton, Business Development Manager at Jenrick CPI gave these comments on his findings:
“As so often happens in these difficult times employers do indeed tend to lay off permanent staff, only to swiftly replace them with highly experienced contract Consultants - thus keeping their head-count down.
This ploy though initially expensive does tend to work well - as it keeps critical key projects running, utilising the ‘cream’ of talent available - whilst awaiting the general market to pick up naturally before employing permanent Employees again.
Conversely there are indeed some strong Financial Trading Houses who have decided now is the time to ‘ steal a march’ and scoop up the wealth of talent available actually hiring on a permanent basis, Java, C++ Developers and Application Support Consultants being particularly
prevelant.In conclusion the overall hiring market is still mixed and too early to ‘call’ in confirming a full recovery in the City.”
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Article Source: FT.com
Tags: City Jobs, City Recruitment News, IT contractor job market news
