Demand for UK bankers hits three-year high, JPMorgan & Citi busiest recruiters
Demand for bankers is at its strongest since Prince Harry married Meghan Markle almost three years ago, new labour market data for England and Wales (E&W) shows.
In February 2021, Britain’s top banks posted 1163 professional banking vacancies, 43.9% more than the same month a year earlier. This is the highest amount since the royal wedding in May 2018, when the industry sought 1235 senior banking specialists.
“These bullish figures show there’s fight left in UK financial services yet. Banks are still bolstering their ranks despite warnings of a mass exodus of talent,” says Hakan Enver, Managing Director of Morgan McKinley, which gathered the figures with data publishers Vacancysoft.
“It’s unavoidable that the banking industry will face challenges because of Brexit. However, recruiters in financial services in London and around E&W are finding this an unexpectedly busy period.”
BANKS BOOST IT RESOURCES
Overall professional vacancies in the banking sector in February, meanwhile, are 19.4% up year-on-year — the highest they’ve been since Boris Johnson became Conservative party leader in July 2019.
The data also found that banks in 2020 strengthened their digital resources, with vacancies for IT developers and engineers (+5.6% year-on-year) and infrastructure specialists (+2.6%) increasing their share of total sector vacancies.
JPMORGAN AND CITI BUSIEST RECRUITERS
With the unsettling effects of the pandemic and approaching end of the Brexit transition period, hiring across the UK’s biggest banks felt a big impact in 2020. Lloyds Bank (-65%), Barclays (-43%) and NatWest (-33.1%) all experienced year-on-year drops in recruitment.
JPMorgan (+51%) and Citi (+85.7%), however, appeared unfazed — and also emerged fastest out of the blocks in the first two months of 2021, posting 442 and 333 professional vacancies, respectively.
- The data for this article is taken from a recent Vacancysoft and Morgan McKinley report on banking, available here.
- Need labour market data to enhance a story or report? Contact Vacancysoft’s Communications team on +44 (0) 207 193 8990.
[Photo by Ed Robertson on Unsplash]
