The credit crunch will trigger a number of job sackings in the city in 2008, say business analysts.

The centre for economics and business research (cebr) says that city jobs will decline by as many as 6,500 in 2008 from the previous year. The figures are skewed, however, since 11,000 jobs were added in 2007 beating expectations of a 4,000 increase.

In the firing line is private equity, mergers and acquisitions, hedge funds and structured finance.

The report also suggests that the job losses will be short lived with most sectors seeing job increases in 2009 as the US economy and the financial markets recover.

Jonathan Said, senior economist at cebr, commented: “Although total jobs in the City will decline next year, and although there is the potential for a second hit after the Chinese Olympics, we remain confident that with two thirds of the world’s population becoming franchised into the global economy, the City will return to record jobs number in 2010.”