London's financial sector suffered its worst November for hiring since before the financial crisis, a recruitment agency said on Monday, with the number of new jobs created falling by a third year-on-year. Just 1,790 new London finance jobs were created last month, according to financial services recruitment firm Astbury Marsden, down from 2,670 in November last year and 13,000 in November 2007, before the onset of the financial crisis.

Separately, recruitment consultancy Morgan McKinley found there were 2,079 new financial services jobs in November, a 24 percent drop on the same month last year. The number of job-seeking professionals in the City, as London's financial sector is known, is now at its lowest level since January 2004, Morgan McKinley said. "This is by far the most dramatic slump we have seen over the last few years and should be a real wake up call," said Mark Cameron, chief operating officer at Astbury Marsden.

Copyright Reuters, 2012