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LONDON - Thousands of London's financial professionals will lose their jobs over the next year as a result of the credit crunch, with many likely to face a jobless Christmas, experts say.
There will be 6500 fewer professionals in the City of London financial hub next year, says a Centre for Economics and Business Research report. About 2000 City jobs are expected to be slashed by Christmas off a record high of 349,100 registered this month.
"What we are likely to see as we enter 2008 is a reduction of almost one for every two jobs added this year," said Sarah Bloomfield, one of the report's authors. "It will feel worse than it actually is because the City has become used to adding jobs at breakneck speed."
Private equity, mergers and acquisitions, hedge funds and structured finance units will shed the largest number of jobs, the centre said.
Swiss bank UBS AG said this week it will axe 1500 jobs in its investment bank and Credit Suisse will let go 170.
"Clearly, there are going to be more job cuts, especially from the likes of Citi where we can expect the highest," said Shaun Springer, chief executive of London-based recruitment firm Napier Scott, in reference to Citigroup. The largest United States bank by market value is expecting a fall of 60 per cent in third-quarter earnings.
But recruiters say London will not suffer layoffs on the scale seen in 2001 when 15,000 financial jobs were lost.
Cutbacks meant that on the one hand, "there'll be greater talent on the market for a short period of time and that might potentially ease certain organisations' war for talent," said Robert Thesiger, chief operating officer of recruitment firm Imprint. On the other hand, the banking industry risks losing some of its experienced workforce for good.
- Reuters
