eFinancialCareers

Worried that investment banks culling staff in London will send a flood of City-slickers cap-in-hand to Scotland? Fear not.

The Centre for Economic and Business Research’s forecast of 6,500 financial services job cuts in London have understandably left City workers hot under their pink collars. In light of this revelation, we asked our readers where they would go if they were to lose their jobs. A total of 1,070 responded and Scotland was the least favoured choice, with only 5.2% of the votes.

This is fairly understandable, given the bulk of London cuts are in the rarefied areas of structured credit and Scotland’s fund management and fund admin sectors present little in the way of overlap.

There’s also the little issue of pay. “The last time there was a downturn in investment banking, a few people popped up here for non-investment banking roles and weren’t getting anything like what they were getting paid when they were investment bankers,” says Joanna Black, partner at Black Appointments in Edinburgh.

Still, lifestyle-wise they might be missing out. At the risk of sounding like a tourist information brochure, Channel 4’s Location, Location, Location crowned Edinburgh the most desirable place to live in the UK. And higher than average financial services salaries can buy prime city-centre property within spitting distance of work.