Hiring activity in the City in February was significantly down on February 2008, according to Morgan McKinley’s latest London Employment Monitor.

According to the company, there were 62% fewer new vacancies in February than in the same month last year. This was despite a 9% rise in the number of new vacancies in February 2009 compared with January 2009.

The number of financial services professionals who began their search for a new role during February 2009 increased by 3% versus January 2009, but was down 34% on the same month the previous year.

The average City salary remained steady, at £50,444. This was a 1% increase on both January 2009 and February 2008.

Those individuals who secured a role during February 2009 took 78.2 days to do so, a month longer (31 days) than a year ago.

Andrew Evans, managing director of Morgan McKinley, comments: “Despite a second consecutive month of increases in new job vacancies being recorded, it would be unwise to suggest that we are starting to see the green shoots of recovery in the financial services jobs market.

“Whilst there have been some more positive signs within the wider financial services market of late, such as some US banks reporting a return to profitability during the first two months of the year, the market is still incredibly volatile.

“It is encouraging that recruitment activity has not slipped further but there is still a distinct lack of visibility with regards to the health of the financial services industry and the jobs market within the sector. As long as this extremely low level of visibility continues, we will need to take each month as it comes.”