SHANGHAI: In the wake of massive job cuts owing to the global economic downturn, the city's financial institutions have received an unprecedented number of overseas applications during a recruitment drive in the US and the UK this month, an organizer said on Wednesday.

During the recruitment trip to London, Chicago and New York from Dec 5 to 14, headhunters from 27 Shanghai-based financial institutes received 2,176 job requests, 12 percent of which came from foreign nationals, Sheng Yuruo, an official of Shanghai Financial Services Office and deputy head of the recruitment group, said.

He said some 840 applicants had reached initial agreements with the firms, which include banks, brokerages and trust and asset management companies.