London witnesses surge in financial sector jobs in May
Over 4,300 jobs were created in the city of London in May, a surprising jump of 25 per cent over April, although still a third less than during the corresponding month a year back, according to a new study by recruitment firm Astbury Marsden.
"Although the eurozone crisis is a block to a stronger and more sustained recovery in the financial services sector, we have still seen a gradual return of confidence amongst City employers," said Mark Cameron, chief operating officer at Astbury Marsden.
"Sentiment has improved since the latter stages of 2011 but, to put this recent recovery in perspective, the jobs market is still far lower than this time last year."
Given that the recent political deadlock in Greece and the banking crisis in Spain, which have made a swift resolution of the eurozone crisis less likely, Cameron said "this significant rise in the number of new jobs is a pleasant surprise for City staff."
Coming on the heels of a recent study by the think tank Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) which revealed the number of well-paid City jobs has fallen by almost 100,000 since 2007, the new report offers some hope.
Unfortunately the cheer in the financial sector with the availability of new jobs is not shared by other sectors as the rest of Britain languishes in austerity.
The CEBR report had warned that besides drop in high paid jobs even the total bonus payouts in the City for 2012-13 are expected to fall by 48 per cent to 2.3 billion pounds, down from 4.4 billion pounds for 2011-12.
The levels of bonus payouts are in sharp contrast to the peak of 11.6 billion pounds in 2007-8 before the global financial meltdown.
Large bonuses are now "the exception, not the rule" following a collapse in City activity and the weak jobs market, the CEBR report said.
Figures for the "real" economy show the situation remains bleak with jobs disappearing left and right, incomes dwindling away and a desperate Bank of England considering pumping more money into the banks through "quantitative easing."
People's Charter trade union officer Bill Greenshields said: "An increase of 25 per cent in one month in the largely parasitic, speculative City of London is trumpeted as evidence of some kind of recovery - while all the evidence shows that the economic crisis at home and abroad is deepening."
Source: Britain News.Net
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