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Number of Jobs Grows in London Despite Negative Brexit Forecasts – UK Think Tank

LONDON (Sputnik) - The number of jobs in London is growing despite negative forecasts, suggesting businesses have some "residual optimism" on post-Brexit prospects, Richard Brown, the research director at the Centre for London (CFL), told Sputnik.
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"Neither London nor the UK is growing fast in terms of job numbers compared to 2012 to 2014 when we were coming out of recession, essentially, but they are growing. There isn't a mass disappearance of jobs as some people forecast in the context of Brexit, suggesting that companies are holding tight and waiting to see, which would suggest there is some residual optimism," Brown said.

Sectors well represented in London appeared to be net beneficiaries, with the "creative industries" defying previous declines by growing by 7 percent since 2017. London-orientated civil service jobs also underwent a pronounced upsurge in numbers, with the sector as a whole also increasing by 7 percent, according to CFL.

"Job numbers are going up and unemployment is going right down to very low levels. Some of the growth we've seen over the past years has been the creative sectors which have been doing quite well, with growth also in jobs in the civil service, which are often specifically London-based jobs so that's significant as well," Brown added.

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UK May Lose 10,500 Financial Services Jobs After Brexit - EY Brexit Tracker
The UK think tank released a research piece on Wednesday, which indicated that job growth in London so far in 2018 reached a height of 5.9 million, a clear increase of 1.9 percent compared to the previous year and the highest since records began in 1996. CFL figures predict job growth in London to continue, with local job vacancies having shot up by over 14 percent over the course of the second quarter of 2018.

The City of London Corporation said last month that the United Kingdom might lose several thousand jobs in the financial sector due to the withdrawal from the European Union. Some 3,500 to 12,000 jobs might disappear in the UK market as many financial companies are relocating their business to the EU member states, according to the authorities.

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