Monday, January 12, 2009

The finance shakeout begins

Between 1978 and 2008, UK financial services added almost 4 million jobs. This huge increase was the counterpart to the growing indebtedness that infected UK households and businesses.

However, the credit crunch has put an end to this unsustainble growth in financial services. Employment is beginning to fall. The great shakeout has begun.

8 comments:

  1. Seven million bankers, estate agents and accountants - unbelievable. Does anyone actually make anything in Britain these days?

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  2. "It's all about restoring confidence - then everything will get back to normal."

    Cameron, Rees-Mog et al.

    Self-belief with not much backing it up is what got us into this mess.

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  3. The shakeout is here. It is a bloodbath in the city.

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  4. I find it strange that the curve has not gone down sooner and further already. I guess all that money thrown at the bank has enabled them to pay themselves handsomely for longer than they should.

    After all, if you give pots of money to bankers, what else are they going to do with it but pay their own salaries?

    I mean, you wouldn;t expect them to lend it to others in a recession, would you?

    Since we have now nationalised a large slice of the financial sector, we have publicly-financed overstaffing such as was typical of the nationalised industries...

    B. in C.

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  5. All the non-essential service jobs will be culled in the next year. Expensive clothes boutiques, hairdressers, upscale restaurants, companies that supply new bathrooms,kitchens,flooring etc, car showrooms & dealerships, furniture shops, pubs, the list goes on and on, they will all go to the wall. Only shops & people supplying essential items for living will prosper, especially places that are cheap and cheerful. Anywhere that depends on high prices/brand names & has low price competition is doomed. The internet will take a massive slice of High street sales.
    Town centres will be ghost towns.

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  6. I mean, you wouldn;t expect them to lend it to others in a recession, would you?

    Nah - That would be wasting it ;-)

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  7. I suspect we'll see a return to the local high street and a collapse in the out of town big box places.

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  8. On "Non-essential service jobs":

    A recent conversation with a rather well-known building society call centre:

    ...you have to call another number to deal with your account."

    "But if you don't deal with accounts at your head office call centre, what do you do there?"

    "Not a lot these days1"

    Non-essential service sector jobs include all the banks and building socieities, with their desperate staff who still try to sell you house and contents insurance, a credit card, or get you to move your mortgage to them on every visit.

    B. in C.

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