London's financial job vacancies fell 20% in May, survey says

[LONDON] Job vacancies in London's financial-services industry fell by 20 per cent in May as public holidays and uncertainty surrounding the UK election results weighed on hiring, according to a survey.

Vacancies in the capital's financial district fell to 8,340 in May from 10,458 in April, recruitment firm Morgan McKinley said in a statement on Thursday. Those securing new jobs increased their salaries by 18 percent on average, in line with the previous months, the survey found.

"The dip in the monthly numbers was a bit of a surprise," Hakan Enver, operations director Morgan McKinley Financial Services, said in the statement. "It appears as if everyone went to the pub to celebrate that the elections were finally over and by the time they'd recovered it was half-term and time to take the kids to Disneyland Paris." The decline comes as HSBC Holdings Plc plans to cut as many as 8,000 UK jobs through 2017 to help control costs. Europe's largest bank will decide this year if it will relocate its headquarters from London, Chief Executive Officer Stuart Gulliver said Tuesday. Deutsche Bank AG is studying the potential effect of a UK exit from the European Union and is examining options that may include moving activities to Germany.

"There's an element of political lobbying here," said Mr Enver in relation to banks assessing a move away from London. "It's not as easy to move your operations as some industry officials make it sound. There are significant costs and risks involved."

BLOOMBERG