LONDON: Job vacancies in London's financial services sector rose by a quarter in the first three months of the year as employers picked up their hiring activity, boosting confidence in the labour market, a survey showed.
Job vacancies in one of the world's top financial centres rose to 7,308 in the first quarter, up from 5,859 in the same period last year, according to recruitment firm Morgan McKinley's London Employment Monitor for March.
"This picture of the hiring market is backed up by what employers are telling us; that there is more appetite to hire and the process is more fluid with fewer obstacles to bringing new talent on board," said the firm's financial services operations director Hakan Enver in a statement on Thursday.
The survey is in line with the latest figures on Britain's dominant services sector, which showed services output grew at its strongest pace in five months in January, easing concerns that the country may slip into its third recession in five years.
London's banks and financial services companies have slashed thousands of jobs in recent years following a wave of banking scandals and a double-dip recession. However recent data show confidence is slowly returning.
For the month of March alone, financial job vacancies fell 14 percent from a year ago to 2,394, but Enver said this was in part due to Easter coming earlier than usual.
The data, based on Morgan McKinley's records of permanent job vacancies and new candidates registering for full-time work, also showed growth in salaries in financial services.
The average salary rose 17 percent in March, bucking the trend in the UK's wider labour market, which has seen paltry wage growth.
"There are further indicators of confidence when it comes to remuneration... Many professionals are now also more self-assured in pushing for much higher pay than they are currently earning," Enver said.
Candidates were likely to find competitive salaries in governance areas like risk management and compliance where talent is in high demand, the statement added.
<Center><b><i>Copyright Reuters, 2013</b></i><br></center>
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