Banks’ City recruiting drive gives Robert Walters a boost

Flocks of bankers are winning new jobs in the City as business confidence returns, Robert Walters, one of Britain's biggest headhunters, said today as it thanked the financial services industry in the UK and Asia for a 45% leap in its half-year fees to £72.3 million.

The recruiter today reported a 36% jump in its British fee income to £11.6 million between April and last month, and said that most of the earnings came from banks hiring staff to fill the desks that were cleared in the recession.

Fees from Asia-Pacific almost doubled to £19.5 million.

"Banking needed a return of business confidence. We've seen that in the second quarter," said Giles Daubeney, chief operating officer at Robert Walters.

Figures published today by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation showed that job growth fell for a third consecutive month in June, and flagged up recruiter concerns about the impact of public spending cuts.

But Daubeney said Robert Walters was preparing for a surge in applicant numbers as public sector job cuts kick in.

"We're expecting a lot of public-sector employees who are worried about their jobs to get in touch. There's a shortage of top-quality people in our key areas, and an accountant working for the Government could very easily transfer into private sector."

Walters is doing its bit to counter the high unemployment figures, having hired an extra 300 staff in the UK and Asia during the last year, taking its total head count to 1,539.