Banking jobs in London are down by a considerable 79 per cent since the UK voted to leave the European Union in 2016, new analysis from recruitment firm Morgan McKinley shows.
Estimates show that newly open banking jobs in London fell from a peak of 108,000 in 2015 to just 23,000 last year. As the chart below shows, there was a bounce in 2022, but it didn’t last.
Posting the figures on X (formerly Twitter), Edwin Hayward said the effect of the UK’s departure from the EU has been like a “pin to a balloon” for jobs in the sector.
Morgan McKinley cite “high interest rates, inflation, shortage of workers and uncertainty around the world following the post-pandemic boom and geopolitical conflicts” in its report ‘What went wrong in 2023?’
There could also be more misery on the cards in 2024.
Citi is on the cusp of a new round of redundancies and Barclays may yet cut too.
The only good news for anyone wanting a new banking job in London last year, was that competition fell. Morgan McKinley estimates that jobseekers went from 94,000 in 2022 to 79,000 in 2023.
That’s still three jobseekers to every job, but it could probably be worse.