LONDON - Demand for bankers in the City of London's booming investment banking and financial services industry could be even hotter this year than in 2006, according to latest figures from recruitment firm Morgan McKinley.
"New jobs coming on to the market are up 12.4 per cent (inthe first two weeks of January) compared to the first two weeks of the previous year," it said.
The City of London had a bumper year in 2006, with banks hiring increasing numbers of staff to keep pace with a flood of mergers and bond and stock market deals.
Morgan McKinley said the growth in jobs was illustrated by its job numbers in December for the industry being 74 per cent up on December 2005.
Robert Thesiger, chief executive of the recruitment firm, said new candidates coming on to the market had dropped significantly at the end of last year as bankers waited to receive their bonuses.
"Although it is still early days for 2007, indicators are already pointing towards another year of high activity within the financial services recruitment market," he said.
He said the flow of new candidates looking to move jobs had already picked up and that this would gather pace once the majority of bonuses had been paid.
Heavy demand for staff has pushed up pay packages. Salaries for senior level staff rose to 77,848 pounds ($224,929) in December, up 6 per cent from November.
