Our monthly London Employment Monitor was the first to break news that financial services jobs in April 2012 were at its highest in six months following the Autumn downturn post October 2011.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)’s quarterly Labour Market Outlook survey, conducted by YouGov also reported positively about the state of the UK private employment in general, with 65 per cent of employers reporting that they were planning on hiring more staff in the second quarter.

Good news for the financial services market also continues as the Financial Times announced yesterday that Canary Wharf has overtaken the City of London as the biggest financial services centre in Europe after US bank JP Morgan transferred 8000 jobs from The Square Mile to its new European Headquarters at Bank Street.

photo credit: Where The Art Is

The shift in the balance of power along with the increasing job opportunities indicates that the city financial services market remains fruitful, but despite the pretence of recovery, the volume of available financial services roles is still down 48% on April 2011. In current fluctuating market conditions positive indicators like this don’t necessarily mean an end to a volatile hiring market.

Click here to read the full April London Employment Monitor.

London Employment Monitor April 12 Highlights

• The number of newly available financial services jobs rose by 19% from March 12 to April 12
• Compared to the same time last year, this was a fall of 48%
• The number of  professionals entering the jobs market month-on-month in April 12 rose by 10%
• This was a fall of 50% from April 11 to April 12
• The average time taken to place professionals in new jobs was 47 days down from 67 days in March 12
• The average salary for those who secured new roles in April 12 compared to those who were newly placed in March 12 was £51,347 – a rise of 2%.

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Vanity sizing, also known as size inflation is used to refer to the phenomenon of clothes becoming larger over a period of time although staying the same in terms of a size 8. In recent years the same has come into a effect in the workplace.

The guiltiest person of this trend setting may be surprising, the late ‘Kim Jong il’, he reportedly had over 1200 titles including guardian deity of the planet, ever-victorious general, lodestar of the 21st century, supreme commander at the forefront of the struggle against imperialism and the United States, eternal bosom of hot love and greatest man who ever lived.

Not that I’ve seen anything like the above applied in the work place, there has been ‘Revenue protection officer’ which was a ticket inspector, dinner lady became SMSA – school meals supervisory assistant.

In the office, where you’ve probably got a few “chief” whatnots, vice-presidents, apparently the number of members of LinkedIn, a professional network, with the title vice-president grew 426% faster than the membership of the site as a whole in 2005-09. Steve Jobs had fun with job titles and called himself “chief know it all”

Is this a substitute for pay in tough economic times? Or is this the latest fashion trend? How do you work out your market rate? well that’s where Morgan McKinley know the market, company structures and most importantly in my opinion about the role you’ll be doing whether your chief whatnot or director of space and time.

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Financial services jobs decline by 8% in March 12 but rise overall from Q4 to Q1 12.

Key highlights from the March 2012 monitor include:

• Job vacancies across London’s financial services sector fell by 8% from February 12 to March 12
• Compared to the same month last year, this was a decline of 57%
• Job availability from Q4 11 to Q112 rose by 4%
• The number of professionals entering the job market in March 12 was 18% lower than February 12
• Continuing the pattern of decline in job seeker numbers, this was also 62% lower than March 11
• The time taken to place professionals into new jobs rose by 6 days in March 12 to 67 days
• The average salary for those securing new roles in March 12 was £50,330

Download the March 12 London Employment Monitor

city jobs, financial services london, finincial services UK, job numbers, London Employment monitor

In the aftermath of the FSA’s 2011 record-breaking number of individual fines, totaling a whopping £65.5 million, it appears that cooperation and not complacency will be the theme of 2012.The FSA’s aggressive stance looks set to have a deterring effect that will echo throughout the financial services sector.

With the implementation of new EU compliance regulations in 2012 including UCITS 4 impacting risk management; MiFID2; FATCA; Dodd Frank; and RDR within the wealth management division, firms are under pressure to alleviate risk and take action.  As recruitment experts in this space, we are seeing the increase in demand for professionals with niche skills sets. Combining technical ability, product knowledge (particularly in equities and fixed income) and, importantly, a strong cultural fit are all important in the hiring process.

Macroeconomic factors such as financial market instability and ongoing eurozone debt issues have caused employers across financial services to become more rigorous, seeking only the best talent in the market. Stringent requirements from hiring managers have increased the overall hiring time, which in some cases has meant them losing excellent candidates to competitors.

Morgan McKinley registered its largest number of temporary compliance candidates in 2011, as challenging market conditions continued. With some compliance functions being offshored and near-shored this has meant more professionals seeking both temporary and permanent opportunities at the same time, with the prospect of competitive rates reflecting the need for specialist skills to be successful  in the jobs market.

Although visibility in employment patterns remains relatively unclear, traditionally the post-bonus period creates more fluidity in the market, but this is still hindered by cautious business decisions, as headcount continues to be closely scrutinised in the early part of 2012.

Compliance, Dodd Frank, Employment, FACTA, FSA, MiFID2

At Morgan McKinley, we use our 8 years of data for our employment monitor to provide a leading overview of the financial services market and to help make informed career decisions.

But I don’t want to write about recruitment this time, I want to write about football. (Don’t be put off, this is relevant).

Football, like all sports, is driven along by the gossip and speculation of fans, pundits, journalists. Everyone has an opinion, but lets be honest, no one really ever bothers with the facts. Well, the writers of ‘Why England Lose & other curious Football Phenomena explained’ did and it smashes opinions that have become ‘accepted’, here are some interesting findings.

They analysed a database of 22,130 international matches (1872-2001) and discovered that the significant factors which dictate a country’s footballing success are: experience (games played), GDP per head and population. Based on that, in the period 1980-2001, England actually slightly over performed compared to our potential beating out richer, larger neighbours.

After examining 1520 premier league games between 2002-06. Armed with the knowledge of the pre-match odds to know the favorite for each they found out that in the games where a penalty was not awarded, the favorite won 51.34% of the time. In the games when a penalty was awarded, the favorite won 51.3% of the time.

Another factor being that then only strong correlation between how a club performs and the wages it forks out each week, pretty much no impact from transfer spending power. Very few managers over perform against the weekly wage; the authors even suggest the fans should pic the team and yes, a club in Mexico is doing just that.

Of course football is still exciting no matter how much data you apply as anything can happen on the pitch and often does, like recruitment our data gives us the edge and allows us to look at the best career advice although our experience to help when the prediction goes out of the window also sets us apart from the rest.

Football, football data

A recent article that I read talked about employers being warned about not putting too much trust in using social media, to solely recruit for new employees into their businesses.

The findings of this article stated that 57% of employers are searching for potential candidates on sites such as LinkedIn .  However only 5% of those individuals surveyed would actually hire individuals from these social networking sites.  In comparison to this, 19% of respondents said that they would hire primarily from recruitment consultancies with 76% preferring to use a specialist agency.

These are very interesting findings which will lead me to believe that whilst these sites are fantastic in terms of building your network of contacts and profile, they are limited in terms of ensuring that you are using a multi-layered approach to find the best talent in the market place.

Many of our clients will rely on us to use this approach to find their new employees and whilst we will use social networking to headhunt and source candidates, we will still use many other mediums, particularly focussing our efforts on referrals and recommendations to our business.  Our clients will also be very reliant on the fact that we will have met candidates sent to meet them face to face, that all will be fully referenced and this then in turn still highlights the importance of specialised recruitment consultancies.

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London financial services job availability rises in February 12

Key highlights from the February 2012 employment monitor include:

• Morgan McKinley’s London Employment Monitor registered an 8% month-on-month increase in the number of available financial services roles new to the market in February 12

• Compared to February 11 however, this was a 47% drop in vacancies

• The number of professionals entering the financial services jobs market fell by 11% in February 12

• This represents a drop of 45% compared to the number of job seekers in the market in the same month last year

• The time taken to place professionals in new jobs was 61 days

• The average salary for those securing new jobs in February 12 was 13% higher month-on-month at £55,768

Click here to view the London Employment Monitor – Feb 12

city jobs, financial services jobs, London Jobs

Singapore is a bustling, world-class city-state that has made waves around the world for its business excellence. If you are on a business visit or furthermore looking to relocate and work in this lovely place in South East Asia, you should habituate yourself with the most common business etiquettes in Singapore.

Top tips for business etiquette:

- Bring lots of business cards to meetings. They should be presented with both hands with the name facing the recipient. Upon receiving a card never write on it, put it casually in your back pocket, or slot into a folder, as any of these actions can be misconstrued as disrespect.

-  Punctuality: although Singaporeans tend to arrive late for social events, being late for business appointments is paramount to an insult.

- Plan meetings in advance. It is essential to arrange your meetings in Singapore in advance. Do so weeks, even months, prior to your visit.

- Small talk: casual conversation is often typical at the start of a meeting and is part of ‘getting to know you’ phase. You may be asked questions about your background or personal details.

- Handshakes: are the most common business greeting in Singapore. A gentle squeeze lasting 10 to 12 seconds is ideal. While Westerners tend to read a lot into a handshake, for Singaporeans, ‘pressing the flesh’ is considered merely a friendly greeting. There are no subtle messages encoded in a handshake’s firmness or duration.

- Body language: Singaporeans are reserved in nature, so it is useful to be aware of their body language and verbal cues. In Western environments, looking a person straight in the eye says: “You have my full attention.” In Singapore, the direct look may be interpreted as disrespect, or worse – as aggression. Catch your counterpart’s eyes for a second, then immediately lower your head and look down. Your body language expresses that you are honouring the person in your presence.

To find out more about what to expect from living and working in Singapore, or hear about current opportunities contact Anouska Serich on +44(0)20 7092 0015 aserich@morganmckinley.co.uk

international experience, Singapore, Working in Singapore

This seems to be a topic which is often covered in conversations within our office.

The compliance and regulatory markets have been growing at an alarming rate since the demise of Lehman Brothers and the start of the recession, and it seems whilst some other middle office functions have had steady growth, the compliance market has seen some astronomical growth, both within sell side and buy side organisations in London.

With the FSA introducing new policies and procedures on a regular basis, does this mean that the compliance markets are likely to continue growing for the foreseeable future?

Morgan McKinley has continued to see a demand for compliance ‘talent’ for the past three and a half years, especially within sales and trading compliance and Anti-Money Laundering (AML).

With the introduction of the new regulators in 2013, will this mean that the compliance market will continue to see growth above other markets? …I think so!

Banking, City of London, Compliance, Financial Services, FSA, regulation

Offshoring operations overseas combined with an increasingly competitive jobs market, has left many professionals considering opportunities abroad. So what value is gained from international experience?

Stand out from the crowd. CVs with international work experience stand out. Employers appreciate the independence, personal resourcefulness and problem-solving skills necessary to work abroad. Particularly if you have sought the opportunity yourself.

Understand new business cultures. Working in a country that has a strong connection with your industry can add an incredible amount of value to your CV. Working abroad can also give you an understanding of other cultures, values and different ways of doing business. Surrounding yourself in a foreign work setting is very different from dealing with colleagues from other countries on the telephone. Even a relatively short period of time spent abroad can be very valuable to your career.

Acquire new skills. Learning a new skill or developing an existing skill is often easier in a new environment. Picking up a new language or learning new processes can be an invaluable benefit of working overseas and are often skills that can be used back in the UK.

Gain new contacts. An assignment abroad can quickly help build your professional network. Nurture relationships with colleagues, you never know where a contact may lead and who they might be able to refer you to for future jobs.

Earn money. Often companies pay generously for temporary workers, particularly abroad. Working as a contractor can be a lucrative option as well as tax efficient in many countries.

Lifestyle change. Working abroad can often offer a different lifestyle, and sometimes a greater work-life balance. In addition, it can give you thechance to explore new interests. It may even take you on to another contract or permanent role there or in another country.

Choosing to uproot and work abroad can be a big decision, plenty of research is essential before taking the leap. If the timing is right it can really develop your career opportunities.

abroad, CVs, international experience, Skills, work overseas, working abroad