According to Astbury Marsden, there were approximately 2,940 City jobs created in June 2012, a decline from May 2012, when 4,320 were created. And the number of new jobs is down nearly half year-on-year, with a fall of 46% from 5,410 in June 2011.
Mark Cameron, COO at Astbury Marsden, said: "This dramatic drop is an unfortunate reminder that we are still in a soft hiring market.
"When sentiment is fragile hirers often look for reasons to delay hiring decisions - for example, the absence of a senior manager due to a holiday. This does raise the concern over how much of an impact the Olympics could also have on the City jobs market in the coming months."
While banks and other City firms are still hiring staff, according to Astbury Marsden, this is often driven by need to plug holes in their ranks rather than an increase in overall numbers to pursue growth.
Cameron said: "Whilst there are signs that the City jobs market is piecing itself back together after a turbulent end to 2011, we aren't expecting an immediate pick up in confidence. The number of City jobs in Q2 2012 is relatively flat on Q1. A return to full health is a long way down the track."
But he added: "The robustness of bank's IT systems has attracted scrutiny over the last few months. Public pressure is really turning up the heat on bank's internal risk controls. Bank IT departments are likely to come under pressure from their boards to run more vigorous and intensive testing and auditing of their systems."
"A lot of the new jobs - in IT, in compliance and in risk - have been about fixing problems that have occurred over the previous five years. Banks are lifting up their carpets and sweeping out all the dust."
The number of City staff looking to switch jobs is at an eighteen month. In June 2012 there were approximately 5,320 City workers looking to change employers, down from 6,740 in May 2012.
