Market slowdown sees Banks cut hiring; Fintech hit hardest 

Key findings include:
  • Banks record a 34% drop in vacancies compared to 2022
  • Nine of the top ten banks see vacancies fall in 2023
  • Fintech in London has a 60% dip compared to the prior year
  • Accountancy is also down, with volumes falling 52%

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The cyclical nature of Financial Services has meant that as interest rates rose, and the economy appeared on the edge of recession, recruitment slowed down significantly. All this has led to professional vacancies falling in 2023, with a 34% year-on-year decrease from 2022. This is according to the latest UK finance market trends report by leading professional recruiter Morgan McKinley and market data analysts Vacancysoft

Nine of the top ten banks see vacancies fall in 2023 compared to 2022

In the same way, when spotlighting the Banks, we see that of the top 10 companies for vacancies in the banking sector, only Lloyds Banking Group increased recruitment, with a 5.5% increase following an 80% rise in 2022. In contrast, Citi, has slashed hiring, with a 75% fall in job openings in 2023, taking Citi’s market share from number 2 in 2021 to second bottom in 2023, Santander also posted a fall of 70% in 2023. Elsewhere, JPMorgan cut its banking vacancies by 50% in 2023.

Fintech sees the sharpest fall across sectors

Fintech leads the drop in professional vacancies with a 60% fall in London and 44% for the rest of the UK. In terms of skills, software engineering was the hardest hit with a 60% reduction. Product Management roles saw the second steepest decline, down 58%. Inversely risk and compliance roles seem to be the least impacted. Given these roles make up 13% of all vacancies in banking and just 9% within fintech, is this an area likely to grow further?

Accountancy slumps, down 52% on 2022

Within the Accountancy sector, 2023 has seen widely reported staffing cuts at the Big Four, including EY, KPMG and PwC, and Deloitte, who announced it planned to cut about 800 jobs in the UK, blaming slowing growth and economic uncertainty. The data shows a 52% year-on-year fall with London and the rest of the UK experiencing a consistent decline in accountancy vacancies quarterly versus 2022. Looking at the sector in terms of skills in demand, we see qualified accounting vacancies drop 33%, meanwhile, every other skill in our top 5 saw over a 50% decline in postings, with a significant decrease in demand for IT professionals a vacancies fell 60% here following a flat 2022.

James Chaplin – Chief Executive – Vacancysoft comments;

“The Finance Industry has felt the impact of quantitative tightening more so than most other sectors. Equally the period of 2021-22 was clearly unsustainable, with that it is worth noting that vacancies in 2023 are broadly in line with the activity seen in 2019, so before the pandemic.”


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All data featured in this report is available in the Vacancy Analytics platform, which is updated in real-time and allows for interactive analysis, giving you the power to drill into trends to identify the key insights, you need to power your business.

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