City Job Vacancies On The Fall

No surprise to learn that the Morgan McKinley Employment Monitor for March has revealed that the number of City job vacancies has fallen some 25% on March 2007. It's also taking candidates 11 more days on average to find a new role (now just over 60 days).

Bloomberg reports that Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack says that the current market difficulties will last for a 'couple of quarters' more, predicting that 'it's going to be a difficult year for the Street'.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Lehman Brothers has liquidated 3 investment funds (two money-market funds and one enhanced-cash fund), taking $1bn of assets onto its balance sheet. It remains unclear whether the Wall Street firm had any of its own money tied up in the funds.

Bloomberg reports that, despite the current difficult market conditions, BNP Paribas is sticking to its revenue target for its investment banking unit, although group CEO Baudouin Prot admitted that 'it will be very challenging to match the $13.1bn that the corporate and investment banking business took in last year'.

Moody's Investor Services has come out and lowered its outlook for German bank credit to 'negative', and says that firms such as Deutsche Bank and WestLB may struggle to increase profitability in the current economic climate.

Finally, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says that the final bill for the US subprime lending crisis may end up being close to $1 trillion. In a report issued earlier this week, the IMF says: 'The current turmoil is more than simply a liquidity event, reflecting deep-seated balance-sheet fragilities and weak capital bases, which means its effects are likely to be broader, deeper and more protracted'.