City Salaries Defy Credit Crunch Gloom

After a disappointing start to the year, the City’s average financial services salary for people joining new jobs has risen to £39,766, according to research from City recruiter Joslin Rowe.

The average salary secured by new joiners in May is up 4.79% from April, when the average hovered nearer £37,950. Despite a string of redundancies in London’s investment-banks, there are bright spots in the rest of the financial services jobs market. There have been substantial salary rises in Investment Management, Life & Pensions, Human Resources and Marketing. Contract and temporary workers are also benefiting from hiring freezes.

Hourly rates in Accountancy and Finance have risen almost 11.94% over the last year, from £26.59 to £29.76 per hour. There have also been increases in the rates paid in Banking Operations (up 5.43%) and Secretarial (5.61%).

In May there were 34,625 candidates looking for permanent and temporary jobs in the financial sector, chasing 18,130 permanent roles. The war for talent rages hardest in Life & Pensions and Insurance, where there are only 0.67 candidates for every job that needs to be filled. Investment Management, Sales and Trading are experiencing candidate shortfalls, with only 0.83 candidates available for every role on offer.

Tara Ricks, managing director of Joslin Rowe said: "The figures may well surprise some commentators. Competition for top financial talent is considerable and the salary rises in a number of sectors speak for themselves. If this is a slow down, it’s a patchwork slowdown.” The increases are the result of a tightening job market, according to Joslin Rowe.

Tara Ricks said: “A higher percentage of target candidates are choosing to sit tight – they’re too worried to move. So even where there are vacancies - there is a shortage of candidates. Over the last month candidate numbers have fallen from 38,350 to 34,625. This goes some way to explaining why people who are prepared to move are beginning to receive multiple job offers again. The number of multiple job offers is not running at the boom levels of spring 2007 – but the fact they're happening at all shows that the market isn't on its knees. We've had several instances of high calibre candidates winning more than one job offer in the last month alone. Candidates prepared to be bold in the in the current climate are being rewarded for their bravery.”