And the job seekers are not just unfortunates that got the boot…

City AM: “A greater proportion of those starting their job search this January are likely to be doing so voluntarily. This would not have been the case this time last year,” explained Andrew Evans, managing director of Morgan McKinley’s financial services division.

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Even taking account of the January spike, it’s a distinctly better picture than Jan ‘09. Going forward, the outlook for the year ahead is unlikely to be quite so strong but gradual improvement is expected.

And it’s not bad of graduates either. The Association of Graduate Recruiters has found that while the number of graduate vacancies has fallen by 8.9 per cent during the 2008/09 recruitment season, the market had begun to improve with the drop nowhere close to the 24.9 per cent contraction predicted six months ago.

Salary wise, investment bank or fund managers topped the chart in 2009 with a salary of £38,250, while law firms dropped from £37,000 to £35,000. The public and third sectors trail at the bottom of the table with salaries of £23,000 and £19,000 respectively. More>