Germans score with Brexit banks

UP TO 100 000 JOBS TO BE CREATED IN FRANKFURT Study predicts flood of new employment over four years in battle for spoils.

The expected mass exodus of UK-based bankers because of Brexit could bring up to 100 000 new jobs to Germany’s Frankfurt region over the next four years, according to a study published yesterday.

The report, commissioned by the Frankfurt Main Finance lobby group, comes as Germany’s financial hub has taken an early lead in the battle for the spoils of Brexit.

The study by the WHU-Otto Beisheim School of Management said 10 000 new banking jobs are expected to flood into Frankfurt as a result of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union. This would have a multiplying effect on other sectors.

“New bank employees will increase demand for housing, infrastructure and transportation, education, healthcare, consumer goods, food,” the researchers said.

Working from the expectation that the initial “Brexit shock” will bring 10 000 banking jobs and assuming economic growth rates remain stable, the study calculated that at least another 21 300 nonbanking jobs would be created in the city of Frankfurt alone.

Frankfurt and the surrounding Rhein-Main region, which includes towns as far as 80km further south, could see a boom of nearly 88 000 additional jobs, the study found.

“As the Brexit effect is permanent, the nonfinancial employment effect will also be longterm,” the authors said. – AFP

Picture: Reuters A child slips off the ‘gostra’, a wooden pole covered in lard, during the religious feast of St Julian, patron of the town of St Julian’s, Malta, yesterday. In the game, young men, women and children have to try to uproot one of the flags to win.