City skills shortage: Almost two vacancies for each jobseeker
Finance firms’ growth is being held back by a lack of workers, recruiter Robert Walters warned today.
It has 10,560 vacancies on its books, but just 6,090 jobseekers to fill it.
The burgeoning economic recovery has encouraged workers to look at moving jobs – Robert Walters has seen a 48 per cent rise in potential movers signing up – but that is not enough to meet demand.
“Only recently have we started to see the impact of the economic recovery feeding through to candidate confidence, which is great news for talent-seeking City organisations as they set their sights on business growth,” said the recruiter’s chief executive Chris Hickey.
“Candidates have been reticent about moving jobs in the last few years, fearing the ‘last in, first out’ culture that previously dominated in the City.
“However, we expect the market to open up more throughout the year, particularly once bonus season has run its course.”
In previous years, much of the demand was for compliance and legal staff who could meet new regulations. But that has now changed.
“Rather than just existing demand across regulatory functions, we are seeing much more optimism across corporate finance, capital markets and throughout the front office,” Hickey said.
However, compliance staff are still in demand – Robert Walters has 1,100 vacancies, but only 405 candidates, a ratio of 2.5 jobs per jobseeker.