August not a wicked month for financial services jobs outlook
Comment Martin Flanagan
We have got almost blasé about retailers and some other service providers brushing off post-brexit worries to post decent results and trading updates over the summer. That has been consolidated by more solid than expected wider UK economic data showing progress in the key services sector and employment, and a deceleration in the 2016 slide of construction.
Yesterday Dixons Carphone was the latest retailer to shrug off fears of a squeezing of consumer confidence following June’s UK referendum decision to quit the European Union.
The electricals and mobile phones giant recorded an undeniably impressive 4 per cent rise in like-for-like sales in its first trading quarter to end-july, with undented footfall by customers driving the performance.
It follows similar statements of reassurance in the high street from the likes of the John Lewis department store group, clothing stalwart Next, and Kingfisher, owner of the B&Q home improvement chain.
But especially interesting is news that London’s key financial services sector, the Square Mile itself and supporting services infrastructure, is also showing post-brexit resilience.
The number of available jobs in the sector expanded 4 per cent month-on-month in August, according to a report from recruitment group Morgan Mckinley in its London Employment Monitor, which concentrates on banking, financial services and inner London jobs.
It is not just that the findings came after the June Brexit outcome, but also that August is traditionally a quiet hiring month in the City, as much of the Square Mile and its wife is in exotic locations spending happily.
UK banking and financial services were widely seen as being particularly vulnerable to the unexpected Brexit vote and its possible ramifications for a UK industry that has benefited much from the single European market.
And even this latest positive survey admits that the UK’S negotiations with the EU about its departure and future trading arrangements may cast a shadow over recruitment as we move into the final quarter of 2016.
But August’s data on job prospects is in a major UK industry is welcome.