London finance firms seen cutting 25,000 jobs in 2012

Jobs in London’s finance sector will slump to their lowest level for 16 years as the euro zone crisis is predicted to cause over 25,000 layoffs in 2012.

That would push the number of jobs lost in the City of London since the top of the financial boom in 2007 to 100,000, the Centre for Economics and Business Research said.

The economics consultancy revised its forecast for the average number of London finance jobs for 2012 down to 255,000, the lowest level since the first quarter of 1996, from a prediction of 288,000 made six months ago. Many of the forecast additional layoffs have already taken place, it said.

Its analysis showed there were an average of 280,350 financial services jobs in London in 2011.