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Following barren 2009, finance contract job offers on the up

Published on Jan 26, 2010 | | Contract Rate Checker

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New figures show that financial services job offers were down 38% in 2009 on the previous year, with the number of contracts offered in the sector down 53% on 2008. However, the market has improved significantly over the past few months.

The data, released by Powerchex, is unsurprising given the depth of the recession, with declines recorded across all industry sectors.

Alexandra Kelly, a director at the pre-employment screening firm, commented:

"The sector has gone through the worst battering in 60 years and firms responded accordingly by drastically reducing staff. Stockbrokers were the least affected as extreme market volatility boosted the sector's profits. IT contractors were severely affected as financial firms put major capital improvement and expansion projects on hold or cancelled them altogether."

Total job offers in the last quarter of 2009 were down 10% from the same period in 2008. Offers in investment management firms were the worst affected, down 38%, followed by offers in the insurance sector. Hedge funds and stockbrokers recruited the most applicants with increases of 63% and 67% respectively.

However, for financial services contractors, recruitment has picked up significantly over the past few months, with the number of contracts offered up 65% in the final quarter of 2009, compared to the same period in 2008.

Kelly continued: "...projects that were cancelled late last year with the onset of the recession are now being resurrected and companies are hiring contractors again."