By Ambereen Choudhury
(Bloomberg) — The number of people seeking jobs in London’s financial industry more than doubled in August, suggesting greater confidence in their prospects of finding better-paying positions, according to a recruitment firm.
Professionals seeking new roles jumped to 15,212 in August from 7,404 a year ago, recruitment firm Morgan McKinley said in a statement on Monday. Job vacancies rose to 10,365 last month from 7,995 a year ago, the survey shows.
“The massive increase in job seekers shows that people are confident they can improve their compensation packages,” Hakan Enver, operations director at Morgan McKinley Financial Services, said in the statement. “Whilst the global equity sell- off did not have an immediate impact on the jobs market during August, normally the effects of any market turmoil are felt typically with a three to six month time lag.”
“If the market continues to stay in the red for the next few months, then we would expect it to show in hiring later on in the year,” he said.
Read also: Need a job in finance? Head for London, vacancies up 56%
Bank of England policy makers said this month the U.K. economic outlook remains healthy despite market turmoil related to China’s slowdown. Even so, British banks including Standard Chartered Plc have said they plan to streamline their business and eliminate “waste and excess.”
The August data show that a finance professional can still expect a pay raise of at least 17 percent by moving from one job to another, according to Morgan McKinley.
The number of jobs available in August fell 5 percent from July due to the summer holiday, the recruitment firm said.
