Further signs of improvement for Irish financial services recruitment 4 August 2009
Paul Clarke There are further signs that the Irish financial services recruitment market is beginning to look slightly less frosty, with some firms actually adding headcount in the second quarter. But it's still very slow progress. Robert Walters has just released its quarterly snapshot into the Irish recruitment market and has suggested that financial services hiring increased 'marginally' in Q2 2009. Firms in capital markets trading and operations, corporate treasury, structured credit, aircraft leasing and energy trading all added headcount, but the recruiter was quick to point out it was far from business as usual. James Hayes, manager – banking and financial services, at Robert Walters, says: "In the last few weeks it's begun to open up again. Organisations that lost key people in towards the end of 2008 and the first quarter of this year were unable to replace them. Now, however, the recruitment freeze has loosened and there's an appetite to take on good people for core positions." Insurance and reinsurance have been steadily building their teams, says the survey, with underwriters, actuaries, product development and risk management staff in demand. Premier Group's monthly employment monitor was less bullish, suggesting there were 11% fewer vacancies in June than the previous month – and a 72% decline year-on-year. This follows on from 3 months of mild growth. Brian Murphy, managing director of Premier Group in Ireland, says that you shouldn't read too much into these fluctuations. "The recruitment market is so delicate that it’s impossible to make any solid forecasts other than that the next few months are unlikely to get any easier," he says. "We’re entering the typically slow summer season, which is likely to prompt more volatility to the flow of new jobs coming onto the market.” |