According to a survey conducted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC), Britain’s finance sector is likely to lose about 15,000 jobs in the next two months. The study revealed that the finance sector will face such situation because of the sharp fall in income and profits. It said that tightened credit markets are hitting the wider economy. The businesses of manufacturers, retailers and other commercial firms declined drastically. Lay offs have been on the rise and investment plans are shunned. Some 10,000 people have already lost their jobs since October 2008.

 

The survey which was conducted among 87 companies revealed that almost two third of the firms experienced a sharp fall in business in the three months to December. The companies were hit badly by the decline in business volumes across all their customer bases. About 45 percent of the respondents said that they are less optimistic about the overall business situation in the financial services sector than they were in September.

 

The study said that the companies have experienced huge fall in operating costs. It has been the fastest drop since December 1993 and are expected to fall further. The companies have cut the training budgets and staff turnover declined more steeply. The situation is very critic at this point of time hence lesser people have decided to go for job changes. The year 2008 was the period the financial services industry would rather like to forget but unfortunately, the recession is likely to prevail till early parts of 2009.