Financial crisis to hit 20,000 London jobs

A ''City of London Dragon'' sculpture, the original of which was used to mark the boundary of the City of London, is displayed outside the Bank of England in London October 6, 2005.

LONDON (Reuters) - As many as 20,000 jobs in the City are likely to be wiped out due to the financial crisis, a survey shows.

The Sunday Telegraph reported that Experian, which provides data and forecasts to government and private bodies, had slashed its predictions for job growth in the City of London and Canary Wharf to a fall of up to 5 percent from its previous forecast of flat net employment this year.

Experian expects between 10,000 and 20,000 jobs to be lost over the year, with the majority going from the financial sector.

With up to 400,000 people employed in London's financial district, a fall of this scale could severely affect the economy, dragging commercial property prices down and hitting related industries such as IT and telecoms, it said.