A graph showing why the financial services job market is actually getting WORSE, not better

There are still a lot of people out there who can't find jobs. If you're one of them, it may have been slightly depressing to read all the recent eulogies to the immense strength of the City jobs market. This is because, as a fresh look at the figures shows, it's never been harder to find a new role.

By mining our immense backlog of data from recruitment firm Morgan McKinley on new London financial services jobs versus new London financial services jobs seekers, we've come up with the graph below.

For those of you who are unable to access it at work, it shows the monthly excess of financial services jobseekers over financial services jobs, from November 2005 to May 2010. And it doesn't look pretty.

Throughout most of 2006 and 2007, the number of new jobs frequently exceeded the number of new candidates. That situation was reversed only by seasonal spikes in new jobseekers, or seasonal reductions in the number of new jobs.

From 2008, however, the number of new jobseekers has exceeded new jobs on a regular basis. After the Lehman crisis, the number of surplus jobseekers soared, from 213 in August 2008 to 4,128 in September. Things have never been the same since.

Despite a few oscillations, the number of surplus new financial services jobseekers hasn't returned to its pre-Lehman lows. And in April 2010, it rose to an all time high of 6,341 - 2,213 more people than immediately post-Lehman's collapse.

In the circumstances, anyone struggling to find a new role need not take it entirely personally.

Surplus new financial services jobseekers, London

Source: Stats from Morgan McKinley