Fear factor: bankers only have 50 days to find new jobs

How quickly do you need to find a new job if you're a banker who has been laid off? Very, it would seem. An analysis of 10 recent hires at major banks in London shows that on average experienced bankers spend only 50 days between jobs.

Data from the UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) register of individuals shows that Goldman Sachs, Barclays Capital, Citigroup Global Markets, JPMorgan Securities, Merrill Lynch International, Morgan Stanley International and UBS AG, along with boutiques like Liberum Capital and growth firms have hired a combined 47 people since the end of April.

However, many of these new hires were juniors who recently left university or completed MBA courses. Although there are still hundreds (if not thousands) of people out of the market, we uncovered only 10 experienced individuals who found new jobs in London in the past month and a half. Most of them went from one employer to another within fewer than 40 days. Many are likely to have been poached by rival firms - any time they spent out of the market will probably therefore have been due to compulsory 'gardening leave' rather than to inadvertent redundancy.

We've listed the experienced movers below, along with the interludes they each had between one job and the next (according to the FSA register). For those who found jobs, 145 days out of the market was the maximum. Six days out of the market was the minimum.

The implication is that no one who is getting hired now has been out of the market for six months or more. It doesn't augur well if you're an experienced banker who lost your banking job last year and are still trying to find a new one - nor does it look good if you're a young banker thinking of taking a two year sabbatical and then trying to get a job back in the markets upon your return.

Speedy banking job moves in London since April

Monica Tepes went from Westinghouse Securities to Cantor Fitzgerald, and was out of the market for six days.

Sean Pereira (former financial controller at Merrill Lynch) joined Morgan Stanley and was out of the market for 13 days.

Ms Joumanna Nasr went from Goldman Sachs to Citigroup Global Markets, and was out of the market for 18 days.

Daniel Singer went from Morgan Stanley to J.P. Morgan, and was out of the market for 25 days.

Nathan Bance (ex-head of investor solutions at Barclays) went to Goldman Sachs, and was out of the market for 27 days.

Thomas Weitz (an ex-rates structurer at Nomura) went to Goldman Sachs, and was out of the market for 32 days.

Gary Erksine (a former high yield analyst at Knight Capital) joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and was out of the market for 32 days.

Mark Michaelides (an ex-M&A analyst at UBS) went to Goldman Sachs, and was out of the market for 58 days.

Anatole Iofe (former head of special situations at Deutsche Bank) joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch and was out of the market for 65 days.

Mulu Sun (an ex-utilities analyst at Credit Suisse) went to Liberum, and was out of the market for 87 days.

Oleksandr Bihun (an ex-associate in telecoms media and technology at Nomura) joined Bank of America Merrill Lynch and was out of the market for 145 days.