Why banking recruitment won't go down the pan (after all)
The head of recruitment at a big US bank says recruiters have nothing to fear.
Admittedly, with banks focused more on redundancies than growth it doesn't exactly look like they'll be rushing to add thousands of staff in 2008, but that need not suggest that they won't be hiring at all.
The head of recruitment at one of the faster growing US houses in the City points out that there will always be staff attrition to fill the hiring gap. "Our attrition is around 15% a year and in some divisions it's as high as 24%," he says. "Even in quiet times, it's a question of running just to stand still."
The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) calculates that there are 349,000 people working in City-style jobs. If 15% of them leave next year, that suggests there will be 52,425 jobs to fill next year.
Admittedly, that may be several thousand fewer than this year, when the CEBR says banks added 11,000 heads. But at least one recruiter is confident the market will continue to expand. "The market will still grow next year, but just not as fast as it's grown in the past two years," says Andrew Chancellor, head of financial services recruitment at Robert Walters.
