Financial services job market index – February 2026

Financial services job market index – February 2026

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Executive Summary

There is no silver bullet when it comes to measuring demand in the U.K. financial services job market.

Over the years we have looked at everything from indices from recruitment agencies, aggregated job board data as well as government/ONS data. All of them are useful indicators but fail to offer an accurate reflection of what’s happening across Financial Services as well as individual and significant sub-sectors.

The City Career LAB & Rialto job market index captures data directly from corporate careers sites as a way of measuring jobs activity – specifically demand. It’s not perfect, but is perhaps the most accurate indicator of hiring demand in the U.K. financial services jobs market.

Each month we collect and analyse data from a broad and diverse basket of handpicked employers that represent a particular sub-sector of Financial Services in the U.K. These results which include all permanent and fixed term contract positions across all functions of the chosen organisations will be published on our website and LinkedIn – to show and explain the direction of the hiring market(s) from month to month.

Our observations this month include:

• The index is off to a good, if not spectacular start to 2026, with back to back rises
• There was one solitary faller this month across the sub sectors – with Wealth & Private Banking down significantly (-23%) following a drop-off in activity at the likes of SJP and Quilter amongst others
• Amongst the risers were Investment Management (30%) and Banking & Markets (9%), with the likes of BlackRock, Columbia Threadneedle, Man Group, Goldman Sachs, Citi, and JPMorgan all showing strong hiring intent
• The Fintech, Insurance and the Information Services sub sectors were all relatively muted
• In terms of Year-on-Year results – the index is 12% up on last February. Let’s hope these positive signs can continue

As a reminder – the Job Market Index is intended to be the most accurate read on hiring demand in the UK financial services sector.

The indicators show:

Banking & Markets: Corporate & Investment Banking, Markets, Securities Services (excl. Consumer/retail) +9%
Investment management: Asset Management, Alternatives +30%
Insurance: General, Life, Reinsurance, Broking +2%
Wealth & Private Banking: -23%
Fintech: Banking, Lending, Payments, Insurtech, Crowdfunding 0%
Information Services: Data Providers, Ratings Agencies, Risk +2%