Lunchtime Links: An abnormally large number of financial services professionals seem too frightened to look for a new job
It's the summer. It's a quiet time. People are keeping their heads down. They are topping up their tans. But people are also scared: they are too timid to apply for a new job.
How do we know? According to the latest monthly statistics from recruitment Morgan McKinley, which has just offered up its insights into the financial services hiring market in July, the number of new job seekers coming onto the London market fell a massive 43% last month (versus June).
Yes, a reduction in new and keen jobseekers is normal at this time of year. But this July's drop is extreme even in historical terms. Last year, Morgan McKinley said July's new jobseekers dropped 36%; in 2009 they apparently dropped a mere 29%.
Morgan McKinley thinks year's new-jobseeker-shrinkage is about more than just timidity. It's also because banks really want to keep their good people, says Andrew Evans, chief operations officer. "Talent retention and internal career development have now risen up the agenda..." he elucidates helpfully.
The sudden drop-off in new job seekers could be beneficial for emboldened individuals who do unleash their CVs onto the market : in June there 10,000 more new jobseekers than new jobs according to Morgan; in July this fell to 3,800.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel unexpectedly unveiled a plan on Tuesday to tax financial transactions. (Reuters)
"We can't have a situation where there is a transaction tax in Dublin and there is no transaction tax in London," Finance Minister Michael Noonan told Ireland's state broadcaster on Wednesday. (Reuters)
If Germany and France did follow through without global support it would likely drive a meaningful decline in trading volumes and exodus of capital from the eurozone to non-taxed locales, including the US and the UK. (Financial Times)
Cantor Fitzgerald wants to buy a few fully functional hedge funds. (FinAlternatives)
BarCap has hired an MD from BAML for prime services. (Financial News)
Intelligent women who are high-fliers in their twenties, are routinely "trapped" in the layer below senior management. (The Times)
Last year, Thomson Reuters had a compensation ratio of 39.6%; Goldman's was 39.3%. (The Times)
Banker by day; riot policeman by night. Such is the life of Patrick Rarden, vice president and head of execution sales at State Street. (CityAm)
