City banks back on recruitment trail

LONDON'S investment banks are hiring again after three years of cutbacks and redundancies. Merrill Lynch, the world's largest broker, has lifted a long-standing recruitment freeze while JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers are also looking to fatten up.

A wave of flotations and strong merger and acquisition activity has already seen big investments banks scramble to recruit new talent in the US and Australia.

In the City, investment banking jobs are forecast to rise by about 1% next year, the equivalent of 3,000 new openings, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. It says the number of jobs there will rise to 305,000 next year and to 310,000 by 2005.

JP Morgan Chase is leading the charge after admitting it plans to make targeted offers to experienced City bankers. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and Goldman Sachs are also recruiting.

Merrill Lynch will add 650 brokers to its global equities division over the next year, and plans to boost its global headcount by 5% each year until the end of 2006. JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs are also set to take on more graduates this year.

In Australia, the top three underwriters - Macquarie Bank, UBS and Goldman Sachs JB Were - are hiring to meet increased demand. Although the number of new hires is dwarfed by the hundreds of thousands of lay-offs in recent years, the trend suggests the worst may be over.