Banking and finance suffer jobs slowdown

A jobs slowdown has been reported in the banking and finance sectors by the latest employment index from Monster.

Reporting its result from January, the firm noted that the legal and insurance industries also suffered a considerable decline in the availability of jobs.

Further problems in the finance sector were reported by the Association of Graduate Recruiters recently, with bankers unlikely to see any pay increases this year.

The index fell 14 points to 160 as drops were seen across all sectors in the UK, Monster stated.

This is despite the strong growth in online recruitment reported in December and November.

Managing Director of Monster UK and Ireland, Julian Acquari, described the dip as 'primarily seasonal,' noting a similar trend during January 2007.

'Although there are signs that employers in select industries such as finance and accounting have scaled back on their recruiting following the turmoil in global credit markets, the underlying demand for labour remained strong in the UK job market at the onset of the new year,' he commented.