The monitor saw a 9% increase in jobs available quarter-on-quarter and a 9% decrease year-on-year. There was a 2% increase in job seekers quarter-on-quarter, but a 15% decrease in professionals seeking jobs year-on-year.
Hakan Enver, managing director of Morgan McKinley financial services, commented, “We closed 2018 with a dramatically poor jobs market, because it’s become virtually impossible for businesses to grow here, so we started 2019 on the back foot. We have under half the jobs and under half the job seekers we had at this time in 2017.
“With the Brexit deadline having been extended till the 31st October—the stress on businesses is showing no sign of letting up. The government had over two years to do its homework and complete the assignment. Right before the deadline, they finally decide to try to work with the opposition to protect the people, instead of their own political power? They didn’t do the homework, they didn’t complete the assignment and now they’re asking for one extension after the other as jobs continue to flow out of London with Dublin being by far the biggest beneficiary, followed by Luxembourg, Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam. It’s astonishing.
Britain's technology sector—which intersects closely with the financial services sector—remains the envy of Europe, having earned £2.5 billion in new investments in 2018 according to London & Partners and PitchBook. However, it also saw its lowest rate of growth in three years.