...but a big City jobs drain begins

THE jobs market in the City of London is ‘under stress’ as firms have begun to move posts to t he Continent, according to specialist recruitment agency Morgan McKinley.

The number of City jobs available fell by almost a quarter in February compared with the previous month and was down by 17 per cent on the same period last year, the agency said.

Hakan Enver, operations director for Morgan McKinley’s financial services division, said some firms were running out of patience with the Govern- ment. ‘ Brexit has pushed institutions into two camps. On the one side we’ve got the “business as usual” team, and on the other we have the institutions that are tired of the Government’s hemming and hawing and have already begun to move jobs to other EU countries. It’s the latter group that has contributed to the quarter drop in jobs available,’ said Enver.

The agency’ s figures showed 6,945 jobs available in the City in February, down from just over 9,000 in January and 8,325 in February 2016. Last week, investment bank Goldman Sachs said it would relocate hundreds of jobs out of London as part of its contingency plans for the UK leaving the European Union.

Enver said Article 50 could actually produce an uptick i n hiring as the outlook became clearer, but that the long-term trend would be downwards. ‘The data suggests that Brexit has had a fundamental depressing effect on City jobs. We’ve already witnessed what was a handful of jobs leaving become hundreds. How long before we are looking at losing thousands?’