Figures out today suggest the number of credit-crunched City workers looking for a new job last month increased by 42%. And yet, rather bizarrely, according to a survey by financial service recruiter Morgan McKinley the bankers, lawyers and financiers who did find new roles in September managed to negotiate an average salary increase of 18%. Nice work if you can get it (again).
As banks are merged or collapse, thousands of jobs are being lost in London's financial district. Unfortunately for the rest of us, the financial services sector supports more than one million jobs directly in Britain and accounts for a third of the economy. And those ties are now beginning to tell.
British unemployment figures recorded their biggest rise today for 17 years - up half a percentage point to 5.7% - as workers across the economy, from bricklayers and shop assistants to estate agents and car salesmen, begin to share the pain.
Everyone gets a similar looking P45 or "pink slip" when they lose their job, but are we witnessing two tiers of job losses? City high flyers who get healthy payouts and help to move into a new job, and those workers being laid off in other sectors for whom there will be no golden handshakes and outplacement services? How long will they have to wait be to be re-employed?
What is your experience of job loss during this downturn?
