City jobs market remains frozen The City jobs market remains static, disappointing hopes that an easing of the eurozone crisis would lead to an early recovery in hiring, recruitment companies have reported. Morgan McKinley, a financial services specialist, said new vacancies in the City were down 57 per cent last month compared with a year ago. It said 2,797 new roles came on to the market in March, down 8 per cent on February and a huge drop on the 6,426 registered in the same month last year. Andrew Evans, chief operations officer at Morgan McKinley Financial Services, said anecdotal indications that the market was starting to regain some of the confidence it lost late last year had not yet been borne out in hiring. The City is one of the most volatile parts of the UK labour market and its post-recession recovery came to an abrupt halt in last autumn's eurozone crisis. London lost an estimated 27,000 financial staff - 8.5 per cent of workers in the sector - last year, according to estimates by the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Some analysts fear it will shed more jobs, especially at investment banks. "Some institutions are still quietly going through headcount reductions which can actually discourage movement across the the candidate market," Mr Evans said. The findings come in spite of a more optimistic survey of the financial services sector nationwide by the CBI employers" group and PwC, the professional services firm. However, Astbury Marsden, another City recruiter, also reported a drop in hiring in March. Mark Cameron, chief operating officer, said it was "disappointing news for those bankers who found themselves laid off before Christmas." The flow of new vacancies remained sluggish, he added. For the big investment banks recruitment had been limited to replacing staff lost through natural attrition. Those who were hoping that an easing of the eurozone crisis would lead to a sudden, sustained and obvious recovery in the City jobs market have been wrong footed. Astbury Marsden estimates there are more than 2.3 qualified candidates for every available City job, down from 1.7 in March 2011. Mr Evans said the market was "confused and uncertain," noting that each positive economic indicator seemed to be counteracted by a negative one. The market for temporary hiring was more active, but companies lacked confidence to make permanent appointments. The past year has brought a series of job-cutting announcements by investment banks, with many of the job losses happening in London. HSBC outlined plans to shed 30,000 staff by 2013 and Credit Suisse will cut 3,500 jobs over the same period. Citigroup in December said it would shed 4,500 employees in the next few months, while Royal Bank of Scotland in January pledged to cut 3,500 investment bankers.