London is the best place in the world to work according to International Survey

London is the most desirable city in which to work anywhere in the world, according to the findings of an international survey that asked questions of some 200,000 professionals.

The study led by the Boston Consulting Group shed little light on exactly why London is seen as such a great place to work but the reasons are sure to include its history, its diversity and its enormous wealth of cultural goings on.

According to the survey, other appealing cities to work in include the likes of New York, Paris, Sydney, Madrid, Berlin, Barcelona, Toronto, Singapore and Rome. But none, apparently, can match the desirability of London as a city in which to ply one’s trade or to pursue professional ambitions.

“People have never made their career choices strictly on the basis of what happens when they’re at work,” commented Mike Booker, managing director of The Network, a co-author on the recent report.

“There’s always an implicit calculation of what the job will allow them to do in their off-time. The difference in the more mobile work environment of today is that workers are applying that filter to job possibilities outside their home countries.”

While London was rated as the most desirable city in which to work worldwide, the UK came in second behind the USA when survey participants were asked which country they would be most likely to consider moving to continue their careers. Making up the remaining eight countries from the list of the world’s top ten most desirable nations in which to work were Canada, Germany, Switzerland, France, Australia, Spain, Italy and Sweden.

“It’s a world in which the geographic barriers to employment are coming down, including in the minds of some of the most talented and highly educated workers,” said Rainer Strack, from the Boston Consulting Group. “This is opening up significant opportunities for individuals and for the many countries and multinational companies that are facing talent shortages of one sort or another,” he added.

London’s apparent desirability as a place to work perhaps goes some way to explaining why office space in parts of the UK capital is more expensive per square foot than almost anywhere else in the world. Although prices do vary considerably on quality office space between different parts of London, with the City and the West End generally taken as being two quite distinct commercial property districts that command much higher prices than most other parts of the capital.

Another of the report’s co-author’s Carsten von der Linden said: “The increasing mobility of the global workforce and the shift in worker preferences has huge implications.

“If they [multinational employers] fail to see what’s happening, government policy makers and HR executives at multinational companies might find themselves watching as their most gifted workers emigrate and do no return.”

London’s apparent desirability as a place to work perhaps goes some way to explaining why office space in parts of the UK capital is more expensive per square foot than almost anywhere else in the world. Although SearchOfficeSpace.com data shows that prices do vary considerably on quality office space between different parts of London, with the City and the West End generally taken as being two quite distinct commercial property districts that command much higher prices than most other parts of the capital