New data offers a bright picture of London's financial jobs market but recruiter Morgan McKinley says this is likely to be impacted should market volatility continue.

The number of job seekers in London's financial services industry more than doubled to 15,212 last month, compared to 7,404 a year ago, a sign of greater confidence in pay prospects, according to Morgan McKinley.

Based on the August data, a finance professional can on average demand a salary increase of at least 17 per cent by moving from one job to another, according to the recruitment firm.

“The massive increase in job seekers shows that people are confident they can improve their compensation packages. We’re also seeing banks recruiting for riskier projects, which indicates a need and an appetite for new talent from employers,” said Hakan Enver, operations director at Morgan McKinley Financial Services.

August made for a volatile month with China's stock market tumble triggering a global equity sell-off. Although this appeared to have little impact on the City's job market, which remained steady with a 30 per cent year-on-year rise in the number of available jobs, Morgan McKinley warned effects of market turmoil may take three to six months to kick in.

“If the market continues to stay in the red for the next few months, then we would expect it to show in hiring later on in the year. For now, it’s only a single month event,” said Enver.

Compared to July, the summer lull played its part in weighing down the number of financial services jobs and job seekers, which fell a respective 5 per cent and 4 per cent last month.

Morgan McKinley collects its data from its own weekly records of job vacancies and new candidates registering with the firm for employment. Statistics for the full market were derived using Morgan McKinley’s market share.