City job vacancies up 12% on previous quarter despite uncertainty

The number of job vacancies in the City grew by 12% on the last quarter, although figures are down 37% on last year, according to Morgan McKinley’s London Employment Monitor Autumn 2019.

The employment monitor, which covers hiring trends from July through September 2019, also finds an 12% increase in job seekers, quarter-on-quarter, compared to a 25% decrease in job seekers, year-on-year.

It also shows big swings in vacancies: job numbers were up by 20% month-on-month in July, only to go back down by 11% in August and resurface with a 5% increase in September.

Hakan Enver, Managing Director, Morgan McKinley UK, says: “Pressure remains strong on both businesses and individual job seekers to hunker down and wait for a resolution on Brexit. As a result, professionals remain reluctant to move, thus failing to generate new positions and growth opportunities for others, and businesses continue to put off all but essential hiring.

“The fact that job seekers are being given added time to get their residency in order, hard Brexit or not, is helping offset some anxiety. But fear of the unknown is rampant and we’re continuing to see employees cling to existing positions”.

He added: “We are witnessing a political circus taking place in Parliament, and a political circus on the global stage. Between Brexit, international trade tensions, and opposition politicians pushing for anti-business policies, we are suffering a real leadership deficit. Because financial services businesses have been preparing for a hard Brexit for over two years, they are proving remarkably resilient. They don’t want a hard Brexit but they’re ready for it.

“We are still living a tale of two economies. On the one hand, unemployment is low and wages are high. On the other, manufacturing is falling and business is operating in a state of perpetual uncertainty. If it weren’t for Brexit, it would be fair to say the economy is doing well”.

The employment monitor showed fintech remained especially resilient, with London now the world’s second most invested in fintech city after Silicon Valley, according to London and Partners.

Enver stated: “The silver lining is that larger banks are continuing to keep up their technology investments, making it among the most active and lucrative subsectors in the financial services industry. It is proving a source of relative stability at a time when the industry is struggling to keep up with daily changes in a complex and contentious global market, as well as facing the looming limitations on its ability to do business with the EU.”

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