Banking jobs lost since last year

160,000 is today's daily digit - the number of banking jobs axed around the globe since early last year.

Reuters Business Report - A Reuters survey of 29 major banks showed lay-offs in Europe were much bigger than in Asia or the US.

And they were particularly damaging to the UK where the finance industry makes up around 10% of the economy.

Redundancies are outpacing new hires two to one so many workers are leaving banking for good.Well-paid investment bankers are bearing the brunt of the cuts as deals dry up and trading income falls.

But workers in retail banking aren't immune, particularly in slowing European economies like France.

The figure doesn't include 6,000 recent job cuts at Commerzbank and not all major lenders have disclosed their lay-offs .

It hasn't taken losses at smaller banks and brokers into account either and some of them are shutting up shop.

One thing's certain today's 160,000 digit is a conservative figure.