Too many trainees, not enough places?

Now that things aren't looking quite so rosy, there's speculation that there won't be enough jobs to go around. In an interview published by Reuters last week, Jonathan Knee, author, senior managing director at Evercore Partners and an ex-Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs banker, said this year's record intake means there are more trainees than jobs.

"They're all walking in and, at the same time, last year's class is rotating, the music stops and they're looking for seats and there are less seats than there are people," he was reported as saying. "There's no question this is going to come out of the hide of the junior people and bonuses."

Part of the problem, according to Knee, is that banks hired record numbers of trainees to start this year. Research by Financial News found that the average bank increased graduate trainee numbers by 13.5%, with the likes of Goldman Sachs boosting numbers by 21%.

The head of graduate recruitment at one bank says Knee's comments are off the mark, however. "When we make offers we make them for specific desks and business units, for identifiable seats that we know are going to be there," he says.