Banking recruitment's same sorry story: more candidates; fewer jobs

On some measures, this should be a fine time to find a job in an investment bank. 2025 was an exceptional year for markets businesses: records were broken at the likes of Citi, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America. M&A revenues soared in the fourth quarter of 2026 and are expected to keep on growing. As Morgan Stanley CEO Ted Pick observed last week, the "setup is ideal" for banks.

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The setup is not, however, ideal for anyone looking for a job in a bank. When US banks reported their fourth quarter results last week, they declared a near-universal intention to keep a tight grip on headcount.  

JPMorgan, for example, will be spending an additional $9bn this year, of which $3bn is allocated to its corporate and investment bank, and yet JPM also has a stated bias against new hiring people unless strictly necessary. Similarly, Bank of America CFO Alastair Borthwick described last week how, "every time someone leaves, we take the opportunity to evaluate whether the role needs to be replaced." And Citi said it plans to end 2026 with lower headcount, again.

Squeezing headcount means squeezing hiring. It means being efficient and doing more with artificial intelligence. At Goldman Sachs, AI is being tested on six mysterious workstreams, which the bank is keeping under wraps. At Bank of America, CEO Brian Moynihan said "several hundreds of millions" of dollars are being spent on AI, and that "30% of the coding technique" has been taken over by large language models (LLMs), saving 2,000 people. Last year, Moynihan also said the bank added 2,000 graduate-level hires and yet held overall headcount flat, implying a continued push for juniorisation.  

At the same time, the baseline for replacement hiring remains lower than it was in the good old days of 2016. Ten years ago, Bank of America's staff churn rate was 16% a year. Last year, Moynihan said churn was closer to 7.5%. Fewer people are leaving; fewer people are needed to replace them.

Within this mix, humans still need jobs. Goldman Sachs said 1.1m "experienced hires" applied for jobs at the firm last year, and that it accepted fewer than 1% of them. Experienced applicants to the firm were up 10% year-on-year. Similarly, applications for Goldman Sachs internships reached 365,000 last year, up from 315,000 in 2024.  At Bank of America, 200,000 people applied for student jobs, up from 120,000 in 2023. 

As hiring is squeezed, non-front office jobs are suffering the most. Moynihan, for example, described how BofA's audit team, " has built a capability" involving a "series of prompts" that has enabled them "to shape the headcount back down."

For the moment, though, jobs in areas like sales appear relatively safe. If you want to be assured of banking employment in 2026, focus on relationships. And cling to the role you already have. 

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