City pay packets offset bonus falls - graduate jobs

Graduates looking for a place in a leading firm would be interested to hear that City workers continue to earn bumper pay packets, as increasing regular pay helped make up for a dip in bonus payments.

A new study by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) found that bonus payouts in the City dropped 8% year-on-year to £6.7 billion in 2010/11.

However, Cebr estimated a 7% year-on-year rise in the average regular pay for City workers during the first quarter of this year.

This is much higher than the over 2% hike reported for the whole of the UK.

Scott Corfe, Cebr economist and co-author of the research, said: "Our research shows that falling bonus payments this year are being offset by rising regular pay packets.

"City workers are not earning less - their earnings are merely becoming less bonus-driven as basic pay continues to grow much faster than other parts of the economy."

Expressing concerns over the increasing shift of financial services to the East, Cebr warned that excessive regulation on bank pay and heavy-handedness with taxation would further accelerate the movement.