Graduate banking recruitment "back on track"

Hiring of graduates in the banking jobs sector is "back on track" and young people remain enthusiastic about studying finance in spite of the downturn.

This is according to an article in the Financial Times, which revealed that job opportunities for recent graduates are growing with most banks expanding their programmes for 2010 following a contraction last year.

Professor Andrew Clare at Cass Business School in London told the news source that "student numbers are way up", with applications rising more than 60 per cent in the past 12 months.

According to the newspaper, Royal Bank of Scotland plans to hire 596 graduates, more than the average number taken on annually before the crisis, while UBS is expected to recruit a similar figure this year.

Further rises in graduate jobs were also predicted by Citi, Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, particularly in areas such as market risk jobs and investment banking jobs.

Meanwhile, UBS senior economic adviser George Magnus recently suggested that recruiters need to "think more flexibly" about hiring older workers to banking jobs in London.