Banking job market deteriorating further

11 June 2008

1 minute read

Banking job market deteriorating further

Recruitment firm Morgan McKinley has released its May report on the state of the market for banking jobs, and things appear to be getting worse. New job vacancies were down 17% in May '08 compared to May '07, and were down 8% between April '08 and May '08.

Morgan McKinley says its findings may overplay the extent of the month on month deterioration because May included two bank holidays and April didn't.

But the head of financial services recruitment at a rival firm says Morgan McKinley's snapshot is deceptively optimistic: "Job volumes are holding up, but what's more telling is the number of actual placements that are being made. A lot of companies are putting out jobs just to suss out the market and see what they can get, but those jobs are not necessarily being filled."

In finance and risk, both of which are still relatively buoyant, she says actual placements are down 25-50% on last year. In other sectors the decline is likely to be more dramatic.

There are some positives in Morgan McKinley's negative report. The number of new candidates coming onto the market fell 19% between April and May, suggesting redundancies slowed last month.

AUTHORSarah Butcher

Global Editor

eF
eFinancialCareers
17 June 2008
In posting a position with us, all recruiters agree to our terms and conditions, which stipulate that job advertisements must relate to specific and genuine job opportunities available at the time of posting.
Reply
GR
GRIFP8
13 June 2008
Can anyone tell me whether the jobs posted on eFinancial are legit? I believe most if the agencies are still posting phantom jobs. I also got a call from an agencies asking me where I have interviewed and who I saw and how much they were offerong. This to me seems to be a ply by the agencies to get there own people interviewed. So a word of warning to everybody keep you cards tight to your chest when speaking to agencies!!!
Reply
TB
TBC
12 June 2008
You need to be careful as headhunter's are calling people asking where they have interviewed and trying to get enough information about the roles so they can approach the hirer to place there own people!!! Pretty messy out there just remember recruiters are battling against each other!!
Reply
Wi
Wizard of EC1
12 June 2008
I think the market has flat lined in the main & that will have medium term cost repercussions. I would be more interested in the number of candidates leaving the market, which is the indicator that should worry HR & CFOs. It is not only HH posting phantom jobs, keep an eye on this website to see the jobs that are re-cycled every six weeks. This may work in the short term, but the real issue will be if candidates lose faith in ALL job ads, accelerating the decline in the talent pool. People do react irrationally & the IB recruitment market (like any market) is based on confidence. Could we possibly reach the situation that the candidate pool shrinks so much due to under confidence that wage inflation returns? Nightmare scenario of falling revenues but increased people costs? 50,000 unemployed bankers probably says No, but stranger things are happening at the moment.
Reply
An
Anon
12 June 2008
You see all these jobs advertised and when you ring them about the jobs -you get the feeling all they want to do is get your Cv and spray it out everwhere. Very unprofessional and makes a mockery out of candidates who are serious about getting a real job rather than being on their database.
Reply