News Article - 09 July 2007
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Around a quarter of all new City professionals are recruited outside the UK, as chronic shortages of accountants and lawyers force firms to look overseas, says new research.

Recruitment consultants Robert Walters said that the shortfall of properly qualified UK staff had helped to boost its first-half profits by 66 per cent to £8.1 million.

"Overall, we reckon around one in seven lawyers we appoint is from Australia, New Zealand or South Africa and the picture is pretty similar in accountancy," said Chris Hickey of Robert Walters.

"UK graduates, rather than going into the professions, now seem to be pursuing a very wide range of careers.

"Corporate law is a particularly difficult area, with firms finding it difficult to keep up with the boom in mergers and acquisitions activity there has been over the past 18 months."

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