RECRUITER: City workers ‘used to talk about if they had to leave London, now they’re talking about when they leave London’

Soap bubbles float past St Paul’s Cathedral in central London, Britain April 17, 2017.REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

LONDON – The number of new available jobs listed in the the UK’s financial centre fell 11% in July year-on-year to 7,080, according to a survey by Morgan McKinley.

The number of people seeking jobs also dropped by a huge 33% from July 2016, while month-on-month that figure is up 1%.

Those who did find new jobs in July got an average of a 14% pay rise.

“The City is still haemorrhaging talent because of Brexit, and we risk losing jobs, too,” said Hakan Enver, operations director at Morgan McKinley Financial Services.

“The language has changed. Employers and employees used to talk about ‘if’ they had to leave London. Now they’re talking about ‘when’ they leave London,” Enver said.

Here is the chart of new jobs:

Morgan McKinley

Prime Minister Theresa May’s government has raised the possibility of a so-called “hard Brexit,” which prioritises immigration control over membership of the European single market.

Such a move would also lead to the automatic loss of the City of London’s EU financial passport. The loss of passporting rights would be devastating to the City of London. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that 5,500 UK companies rely on passporting rights, with a combined revenue of £9 billion.

“Downing Street appears to be the only place in London where you can find someone who doesn’t understand the economic importance of the free movement of labour,” Enver said.

“It’s the difference between being a diminished financial services hub, and not being a hub at all.”