City high-flyers will have had even greater cause for celebrating Christmas this year, according to the latest Morgan McKinley employment monitor survey on salaries and end-of-year bonuses.

The recruitment firm has revealed that nearly 60% of city employees expected their 2005/6 bonuses to be higher than the previous year, with only 8% expecting to receive a smaller amount.

“It's clear that optimism among city workers remains extremely high. While there has been some managing of expectations by the major investment banks over the last couple of months, the overriding sentiment continues to be very positive,” said Morgan McKinley chief executive Robert Thesiger (pictured).

“The financial services industry has had another good year. There have been strong performances from a number of financial institutions, and merger and acquisition activity over the last few

months has strengthened market confidence.”

However, the same buoyancy could not be applied to all city salaries. November's average city salary of £48,407, was nearly £2,000 lower than the September figure of £50,386, while average salaries in November for senior professionals stood at £72,571 compared with £76,982 in October.

There was also a general downturn in city vacancies. The number of new jobs available in November stood at 5,796 compared with 5,859 vacancies in October.