According to a poll of 1,819 financial professionals and as a direct result of the US sub-prime crisis, 64% of UK City professionals believe that lay-offs are on the cards with nearly half of these (49%) believing that redundancies are inevitable. Only 3% of UK City respondents saw no fall-out from current events.
These concerns are mirrored in Germany and Ireland, where 61% and 66% of financial workers believe that job cuts are now on their way.
Sarah Butcher, editor of eFinancialcareers.com, said: “Financial services employees are apprehensive for their futures. With the markets waiting nervously to find out the full impact of the sub-prime crisis, the indication from industry insiders is clearly, therefore, that things don’t look good.”
The concerns being shown by European bankers to the crisis, however, are in stark contrast to those being shown in the Far East and Gulf Region. According to the results, a surprising 50% of financial workers in the Gulf Region see little or no likelihood of job cuts as a result of the credit crunch, with 41% and 32% of financial employees in Hong Kong and Singapore being equally upbeat.
