What the Papers Say

16 June 2008 - The Financial Times

Demand hots up despite cool market

It is an old business axiom that when times are tough, the easiest budgets to cut are staff expenses, recruitment and training. There can be no doubt that, in much of the financial services industry today, times are tough. Yet, thus far, there are few signs of any substantial cutbacks in either graduate recruitment or training. Indeed, many courses that deliver financial expertise are seeing surging applications.

According to a study by the London-based Securities & Investment Institute (SII), graduate recruitment at the 20 top investment banks is running at 94 per cent of the 2007 level, which, in turn, was well ahead of what it was in 2006.

The SII reckons that US banks have pared recruitment by just 4 per cent, and their non-US peers by 8 per cent, but observes that banks based in the City of London have actually increased the number of graduates they hire.

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