eFinancialCareers

Scottish financial services workers are more in the dark about their bonuses than any other country, according to our survey.

The eFinancialCareers.com global survey, which took in responses from 18,000 financial services professionals worldwide, revealed that a huge 47.4% of Scottish respondents don’t know whether to expect a higher or lower bonus this year.

Meanwhile 34.6% anticipate more money than last year, and 17.9% expect to see a slide.

The respondents were spread more or less equally across the front (31%), middle (33.3%) and back offices (35.7%), but it still seems bonus expectations were modest to say the least. Of those in the know, 33.3% were expecting nothing, and 29.5% envisaged less than £10k.

And there was a similarly pessimistic outlook for any potential bonus hike. Those expecting an increase predicted an average rise of just 7%.

The findings are in keeping with recent claims from recruiter Joslin Rowe, which said the majority of Scottish financial services expected no rise in bonus this year.

Globally, the picture looked surprisingly rosy, with the larger proportion (49.5%) of respondents expecting bonuses to be up on last year. Similarly, 45.6% of respondents in London had one eye on a bonus increase.

The Scottish outlook for 2008 was broadly in line with global predictions, with 42.9% of Scots anticipating a better year and 41.9% worldwide expecting the same.