With the Christmas and bonus seasons looming, the number of London city jobs fell an unsurprising 14% in November from October, according to the Morgan McKinley London Employment Monitor. However, on a year-over-year basis, jobs increased by 6%.

“This is the first post-Brexit year-on-year increase in jobs that we’ve seen”, said Hakan Enver, operations director, Morgan McKinley Financial Services. “Heading into the New Year with a higher base of jobs compared to last year, bodes well for city employment in 2017”.

The gradual decline in jobs during the second half of 2016 has been less aggressive compared to what was seen in the same period in 2015.

The report also found the number of professionals seeking jobs in November declined 9% from October, but was up 16% from November 2015.

“Redundancy numbers are up, so a spike in job seekers is to be expected”, Enver said. “At Morgan McKinley, we’ve also seen a surge in top talent registering with us to consider European opportunities”.

With 13,500 British companies facing the loss of passporting rights, the implications for workers are potentially devastating, according to Morgan McKinley. It recently conducted a survey that found 68% of those working in key city industries consider the vote to leave the EU the wrong decision and 62% would consider moving abroad to pursue professional opportunities. Mainland Europe was by far the most favoured relocation destination.

“In this day and age you may have to be willing to relocate to have a successful career”, Enver said. “In the event of a hard Brexit, professionals will have to consider putting their careers ahead of geographic preferences and in so doing, economic growth could stall by five to ten years”.

In an effort to thwart such a large-scale brain drain, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is considering a London-specific Brexit that would protect the freedom of non-British nationals to work in the capital. "If the government ignores the needs of business and pushes ahead with a new system that cuts off access to skilled workers, then we will have no choice but to look at a London-specific solution”, Khan said.