Copyright 2015 Bloomberg.(Bloomberg) — London’s financial-services companies are set to step up hiring after the number of new jobs jumped 17 percent in February from a year ago, boosted by reviving global equities markets, according to a recruitment firm.
Firms are seen adding more staff this month and next after signing off on their headcount for 2015, while bankers are “likely to look at new opportunities” after receiving their bonus payments, Astbury Marsden said in an e-mailed statement. Firms in London’s City financial district created 3,010 jobs last month after an increase of 2,780 in January, it said.
“A strong global equities market and positive economic noises emanating from the U.S. and the euro zone contributed to increased hiring activity in February,” Christopher Adeyeri, associate director at Astbury Marsden, said in the statement. “City hiring activity tends to slow through January and February as firms finalize their recruitment plans for 2015.”
Barclays Plc said on March 3, when reporting full-year earnings, that it expects income from the securities unit in the first quarter to be “well ahead” of the previous three months, citing “current trends and a strong banking pipeline.”
Still, lenders are shrinking their bonus pools after regulators toughened capital rules and imposed caps on incentive awards in the wake of the financial crisis.
At Barclays, variable compensation fell by 22 percent in 2014 from a year earlier. A total of 273 employees were paid between 1 million pounds and 2 million pounds in 2014, down from 363 people a year earlier, with more than half of those staff based in the U.S. and a third in the U.K., the bank said.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the government-owned British lender, cut variable compensation for 2014 by 26 percent after reporting its seventh annual loss. Lloyds Banking Group Plc cut its bonus pool by 3.6 percent from 2013.
“City staff who were planning to move jobs but were waiting to hear about their 2014 bonus will undoubtedly look at new opportunities in the spring, especially if they don’t get the reward they think they deserve,” Adeyeri said.
