eFinancialCareers

The shortage of UK science graduates is making itself felt in the City, where recruiters say banks are struggling to satisfy soaring demand for quants.

Yesterday the Confederation of Business Industry (CBI) launched a campaign highlighting the lack of science graduates in Britain, a deficit which it said is forcing employers to seek staff from abroad.

Ben Burston, head of the quant practice at financial services recruiter NJF Search, says investment banks are among the employers scouring the world for suitable scientific talent. “We really notice the lack of core engineering and science skills across the country. We’re much more likely to place someone from outside the UK, and even from outside Europe, in a City quant job than we are a UK national.”

The shortage of UK staff means it’s relatively easy to gain a work permit for quant-related jobs, says Burston. Many of the staff working in the City of London come from France, Russia, Poland, or China, he adds.

Burston says talent shortages have been exacerbated recently by a rush of interest in people to work on quantitative trading models, such as statistical arbitrage and equity volatility trading. “There’s been more opportunity to profit from rising markets and volatility due to macro events,” he says. “Most banks and hedge funds have been very hungry to get people on board.”

Healthy demand and tight supply have impacted pay, with the result that salaries are reportedly much higher in the City than on Wall Street, where talent shortages are said to be less acute. “A good proprietary trader can earn a £150,000 basic salary minimum in London,” says Burston. “Salaries in New York wouldn’t be much more than the dollar equivalent.”