London Jobs Market Bears Brunt Of Downturn

Oxford Economics has more bad news about London's future job market. An analysis of the latest figures for employment reveals that the recovery will be a slow process and that London will likely continue to underperform through 2011.

A number of announcements have been made concerning recent job cuts. Barclays, Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, RBS, and UBS have all made cuts that amount to 3,000 lost positions over the last few months. The coming credit crunch will likely make this much worse as employment prospects dry up.

London is right in the middle of the current crisis so it is expected to suffer the worst. Estimates are that 97,000 jobs will be cut by next year. This amounts to a 2.1% fall. 2010 doesn't look any better. The numbers also suggest that a bad recession is in store for London in 2009. It is estimated that the GDP will fall by 1.8%.

The problems will be mainly centered around London though. The predications are based off of the steep drop in the financial sector, which accounted for a significant portion of London's growth. Tower Hamlets is believed to have brought in 39,000 jobs alone over the last decade. The downturn in the financial sector will cause 35,000 jobs to be lost from the London hubs over the next two years. This tightening will then filter down and hit all of the supporting industries. Tower Hamlets is expecting an 8% fall in employment over the same period, which should amount to 18,000 jobs lost.

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