Job vacancies in the financial sector fall

London headhunter, Morgan McKinley, said job vacancies in the financial sector declined 23% in March as the credit squeeze continued to take its toll.

The announcement casts further doubt over the state of the British economy. Yesterday saw an eagerly awaited interest rate decision for many years. The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announced it was lowering interest rates from 5.25% to 5%.

George Soros, billionaire and one of the world’s most respected investors, warned the credit squeeze was not over and criticised authorities and the banking industry of complacency about the seriousness of the crisis.

Mr Soros said I think the situation is far more serious than the authorities admit or recognise. Because of that, the situation is going to get worse before it gets better.

Thousands of jobs have already been slashed at investment banks and it is predicted that 10,000 roles will be axed this year as firms deal with huge losses and falling business as a result of the credit squeeze.

Earlier this week, the RBS (RBS) announced it was laying off 200 staff in its global banking and markets business. RBS said the jobs will primarily be in RBS’s leveraged finance, real estate lending and securitisation operations and are believed to have been made as a result of the continued downturn in the worldwide financial markets.

Robert Thesiger, chief executive of Morgan McKinley owner Imprint, said I think the majority would agree that the rest of 2008 will be challenging for both the financial services industry and financial services recruitment.

Hays, a rival recruitment agency, said there is little action in permanent recruitment in the City which echoed a warning from Michael Page earlier this week.

Those who secured a job in March took on average 2 months to do so, 2 weeks longer than the time required a year ago.

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