London finance openings rise to one-year high: Survey

Job openings in London’s financial-services industry rose to the highest level in a year last month, according to a survey by recruitment firm Morgan McKinley.

The number of openings climbed 15 per cent to 4,410, the most recorded in any month since October 2008, the London-based company said today.

“The City jobs market has seen and continues to see a general trend of improvement,” Andrew Evans, managing director of Morgan McKinley’s financial-services unit, said in an e-mailed statement. “Progress has been slow and somewhat unsteady over the course of 2009, but hiring within London’s financial services sector is following an upward trend.”

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is trying to revive the recession-mired economy in time for an election that must be held by June. The Office for National Statistics will say later today that UK claims for jobless benefits rose in October by the least since May 2008, according to the median forecast of 28 economists in a Bloomberg survey.

The average salary registered by the Morgan McKinley survey fell 1.5 per cent to 51,350 pounds ($85,639) in October, from 52,142 the previous month. That compares with 48,021 pounds a year earlier, Morgan McKinley said.

KPMG LLP and the Recruitment and Employment Federation said in a November 4 report that strains in the labour market eased in October. A measure of permanent job placements rose to 54.6, the highest in two years, from 51.3 the previous month.

Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, said yesterday it plans to cut about 5,000 jobs in its administration, insurance and mortgage units. Lloyds, which already announced more than 8,000 jobs cuts since its January takeover of HBOS Plc, follows Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and HSBC Holdings Plc in cutting jobs.

The two lenders said last week they would eliminate a combined 5,400 positions.