SocGen in global hiring spree

Despite incurring massive losses from the credit crunch and its rogue trading scandal, French banking group Société Générale is bucking industry trends by launching a campaign to recruit around 20,000 new staff worldwide this year.

SocGen says it has tripled its headcount over the past 10 years and now has 151,000 staff worldwide.

The bank is now looking to hire 600 staff immediately in France and has launched a high-profile recruitment campaign, using print, posters and the Internet.

The group wants to recruit around 5500 new staff in France this year to work across its three main units -  retail banking and financial services, global investment management and corporate and investment banking.

According to a Financial Times report, the bank also has vacancies in its audit, risk, accounting, middle office and IT departments.

SocGen's recruitment drive follows gloomy predictions by analysts that around 20,000 jobs in the City of London will be lost over the next two years due to the global credit crunch.

In April the centre for economics and business research (CEBR) warned that the employment downturn will be worse than during the dotcom crash.