Thousands of workers in the financial services industry could lose their jobs in the final quarter of 2006, according to a survey of the financial services industry carried out by the CBI and business services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
And HR could be in the firing line as John Hitchins, UK banking leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers said: “It’s the high street banks and insurers that are shedding people from their back office processes – no-one is cutting customer services staff.”
However, Hitchins added that most areas of the financial services industry remained positive in their outlook.
The survey showed that finance firms expect to employ 5% fewer people over the next three months.
However, there will still be more people employed in the industry than at the start of July, as companies reported overall recruitment had risen by 8% since then.
The past quarter saw income fall for the first time in two years, profitability growth flatten, and recruitment slacken, the report showed.
Apart from the slowdown in recruitment, the three months ahead look more upbeat generally, with companies saying they expect income and business volumes to recover and profitability to strengthen.
In the three months to September, growth in business volumes slowed sharply to 2% – 28% said volumes had grown and 26% reported a decrease. This was in line with expectations, but was a marked contrast to June’s balance of 44%, the report concluded.
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