City jobs on rise — but only from rock bottom

The number of new City jobs trebled last month, but only against December’s count which was the lowest since the financial crisis began in 2008.

Recruiter Astbury Marsden said there were about 2,509 new City jobs created in January, up from just 802 in December. In the boom, before Lehman Brothers collapsed, about 13,000 jobs a month were being created.

Mark Cameron, chief operating officer at Astbury Marsden, says: “The City jobs market has bounced back — but that rebound is from absolute rock-bottom in December. We are still far from having turned the corner.”

Mr Cameron blamed the lack of new jobs on politicians  and regulators.

“The amount of capital investment banks now have to maintain on their balance sheets makes them much less profitable and that means huge job cuts,” he said. “In fact, so damaging have those attacks on banks been to job creation, there are signs regulators are easing off slightly.”

He said America’s avoidance of the fiscal cliff, Greece’s continuance in the eurozone and the FTSE 100’s 34-year-beating January performance were all good news for the City, but would take time to translate into an upturn in employment.

He said: “For the jobs market to recover the investment banks need to be firing on more cylinders.”