Job opportunities in the London financial services
sector increased in January as usual, but there were less than
during the same period last year.
IT job-seekers will face severe competition as more candidates
apply for vacancies following
massive layoffs in financial services IT.
According to financial services recruitment firm Morgan
McKinley, there was a
59% increase in jobs comingon the market in January compared
withthe previous month. But the number of jobs was 64% less than
January last year.
According to the research,workers who started a new job in
January took an average of 80.9 days to find it - about three weeks
longer than people starting new jobs in January last year.
IT jobs make up about 25% of total job losses in the financial
services sector, according to analysts.
Andrew Evans, managing director ofMorgan McKinley, said it is
normal for the number of job vacancies to increase in January as
businesses begin implementing their 2009 plans.
"Given the extremely difficult situation that London's financial
services jobmarket faces, it is significant that this uplift in new
job vacancies occurred this year.However, the reality is that there
were still considerably fewer new jobs available in January 2009
compared with a year ago," he said.
Ralph Silva, analyst at Towergroup, said this year's business
plans will involve filling gaps in IT roles but will definitely
result in fewerIT opportunities in total.
"The IT jobs that will take the biggest hit are those related to
innovation projects and replacing existing applications," he
said.
However, Silva addedthat there wouldbe opportunities for IT
workers with skills related to regulatory issues, technology that
lowers costs and risk management.
But there will be more competition than ever for these jobs.
Evans said employees
who
have been made redundant currently account forthe majority of
job-seekers.
"Those in employment are choosing to stay where they are rather
than enter a volatile jobs market, particularly if they think there
is a chance of a bonus payout."