Financiers take cut of £3bn bonus boom

The finance industry has benefited from a boom in the amount firms are splashing out on employee bonuses.

Graduates may want to consider a career in banking and finance following the revelation that bonuses rose by £3bn from December 2006 to April 2007, with those in finance jobs taking the lion's share of the largest remuneration packages.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that bonus amounts increased by billions compared to the same period last year.

The figures - published in the Economic & Labour Market Review - show that the average earnings index rose from normal levels of between 3.3% and 3.6% to 4.8% in January - the time of year companies fork out their annual bonuses.

Furthermore, the index rose to 5.4% in February, indicating another spell of hefty remunerations.

However, Broadbean Technology claims that the number of banking and finance jobs has been reduced following this summer's credit crunch.