London bankers changing jobs got 19% pay boost in fourth quarter

[LONDON] Switching jobs is proving lucrative for financial services workers in the City of London, who secured an average pay rise of almost a fifth when they changed companies in the fourth quarter.

The 19 per cent average salary change was similar to the pay rises seen throughout 2021, according to recruiter Morgan McKinley's Winter London Employment Monitor, underlining the Square Mile's surging jobs market after the Covid outbreak cast a chill on recruitment in early 2020.

The total number of financial services jobs available in London for 2021 rebounded to 32,331, in line with 2019 and roughly double the figure for 2020, the recruiter said in research published Monday (Jan 17).

In total about half a million people work in the City of London, the centre of the capital's financial services industry, according to official data.

"In broad terms, the job numbers continued to reflect an encouraging recovery from the impact of Brexit, furlough scheme, pandemic and lockdowns," said Hakan Enver, managing director of Morgan McKinley UK.

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