It's not your fault if you can't find a job in London
Anyone would think there's a lot of hiring going on.
As we reported earlier, Credit Suisse has announced its intention to hire at least 130 front office bankers. Yesterday, it was suggested that Morgan Stanley might want to recruit another 60-100 equities traders (globally), and that BarCap might aspire to hire another 60-80 equities people in Europe. BofA and Citigroup have both said they want to hire lots of people in commodities, and Deutsche Bank is said to be looking for around 40 junior M&A bankers in the City.
However, an analysis of the big front office investment banking hires that have taken place globally since February 1st - usually the key time for movement after bonuses have been paid out - reveals that recruitment in London has been very muted this year.
Of 70 predominantly senior hires mentioned (mostly) on Bloomberg since February 1st, only 16 were in London. And of those 16, 11 were at SocGen.
Needless to say, not all new hires are announced, but the fact that London accounted for only 22% of global hiring in our sample - and that most of that was at one French firm - suggests that either the bonus tax has killed recruitment, or that building businesses in the City simply isn't a strategic priority.
The reality is likely to lie somewhere between the two. Asian hiring accounted for 27% of our sample, while the US (bumped up by Nomura's American build) accounted for 36%. Russia has also been an area of significant growth.
If you're looking for a front office job in London, the big hope must be that hiring will pick up significantly post April 5th, when the bonus tax on buyouts will (hopefully) no longer apply. Otherwise, it might be time to start looking elsewhere.
