London Finance Job Vacancies Jumped 18% in 2014

By Ambereen Choudhury

Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Canary Wharf business and shopping district in London, U.K.

Job vacancies at London’s financial-services companies jumped 18 percent in 2014 as firms accelerated hiring in the fourth quarter, according to a recruiter that tracks the industry.
The number of job openings in the Canary Wharf and City financial districts rose to 33,063 from 27,915 a year earlier, Astbury Marsden said in an e-mailed statement. That was fueled by a 22 percent jump in hiring in the final three months of 2014, the biggest increase since 2010.
“Better conditions in the City over the last year have enabled firms to spend more time thinking about modest growth, though what we are seeing is far from a return to the aggressive hiring seen before the financial crisis,” said Adam Jackson, a managing director at Astbury Marsden. “Many City staff might be delaying a job move until after the 2014 bonus round, hoping they will receive a sizable payout.”
The rebound compares with a drop of 21 percent in job vacancies in
2013, Astbury Marsden said. Hiring in the finance and accounting industry is returning to “pre-recessionary levels,” recruitment firm Robert Half International Inc. said in October, with the U.K. forecast to be one of the fastest-growing Group of Seven economies in 2014.
The U.K. economy recorded a seventh straight quarter of growth in the three months through September as household spending rose the most in more than four years.