Volatile recruitment market for financial services contractors

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Volatile recruitment market for financial services contractors

Posted Aug 18, 2010

Financial sector recruitment is continuing to grow, according to a recent report, although the summer has seen a slip in offers made to IT contractors within the sector.

The latest data provided by pre-employment screening firm Powerchex shows that the total number of City financial services job offers was up 15% from June to July 2010, suggesting that fears of a 'double dip' recession may be overblown.

Job offers in non-IT areas such as stockbroking, insurance and investment management also saw solid gains month-on-month.

However following a post-Easter surge, there were 29% fewer contract offers for financial services IT contractors in July compared to the previous month, although this is not unusual over the summer period.

Good signs, but volatility remains in recruitment market

Director of the firm, Alexandra Kelly, commented:

"Summer tends to be a quieter time of year, so with this in mind the recent 15% increase in recruitment activity is undoubtedly a good indication of the confidence levels of Financial Services companies. Certainly, if we compare the number of job offers in July to the corresponding month last year, we see that overall recruitment levels have improved considerably."

"However, we are seeing considerable volatility in month-on-month recruitment activity, which indicates that the job market is still some way from settling down. For example, recruitment figures for June showed a substantial increase in opportunities for IT contractors in the financial services, but slipped again in July."

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