(Bloomberg) -- Job vacancies in London’s finance industry fell 52 percent in December, the most in three years, according to a survey.
Recruitment firm Morgan McKinley attributed the drop partly to the holiday season and said its findings underscored the looming “Brexodus” from the City -- particularly since there was also a 37 percent decline in job openings year-on-year.
“In December, the City is abuzz with holiday parties, not hiring, so a drop is to be expected,” Operations Director Hakan Enver said in the report, published Thursday. “But for it to be such a seismic drop is alarming.”
Morgan McKinley cited firms’ frustration at the lack of progress in carving out a Brexit divorce agreement and said that a lot of good news -- such as an increase in the number of skilled-worker visas being issued -- was being overlooked in the confusion. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS)., Deutsche Bank AG (DE:DBKGn) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC). are all said to be moving operations away from London in favor of cities such as Frankfurt and Paris in case of a no-deal departure.
There was a 30 percent drop in the number of London professionals seeking new positions in December compared with a year earlier, dwarfing the decline in 2016, Morgan McKinley said. And those bankers that did move jobs last month saw a 14 percent average salary increase -- among the smallest of 2017.
“Brexit clobbered the City’s workforce in 2017,” Enver said. “Anyone sticking it out into 2018 is in it for the long haul.”