If you are 35 years old, have only ever worked in the City and have lost your job, then the chief executive of Britain’s biggest listed recruitment company has a grim message for you on the prospect of a recovery in financial sector employment: “Those jobs have gone and they’re not coming back any time soon.”

Alistair Cox said he had seen no indication green shoots have taken hold yet in the notoriously competitive City recruitment market. “It’s still a brutal job market in most countries in the world. There’s no clear sign we’re past the worst,” he told the Financial Times.