Australian finance jobs advertised on eFinancialCareers were down 1 per cent in the third quarter of 2011, compared to the same period in 2010, while the corresponding figures in Hong Kong and Singapore jumped by a third.
The eFinancialCareers quarterly jobs barometer attributed the 1 per cent drop in [the] Australian financial jobs advertised to a static market. Due to a slowdown of hiring in Asia, increases of 31 per cent in Hong Kong and 34 per cent in Singapore came, despite a period of no growth between the third quarter of 2010 and second quarter of 2011.
Private banking and wealth management was the worst performing sector, with advertised jobs dropping by 22 per cent across the entire Asia-Pacific region. This was surprising, considering both global and regional players have regularly reaffirmed their commitment to hire and grow their Asian teams, according to eFinancialCareers.
However, smaller or niche firms are struggling to stay profitable due to competition and rising costs – meaning they are not actively looking to increase the number of jobs.
Banks looking for first-rate private bankers are not necessarily actively hiring at this time of the year due to the need to pay guaranteed bonuses, eFinancialCareers stated.
The best-performed sectors were sales and marketing, risk management and credit – all up by around a third.
Quantitative analysis, capital markets and commodities also outperformed, each increasing by around a quarter or more; while insurance, retail banking and consultancy were the other sectors to underperform.
Overall, finance jobs across the Asia-Pacific region increased 23 per cent year on year, but head of Asia-Pacific at eFinancialCareers George McFerran said he expected recruitment to dwindle slightly until the end of 2011. Some multinationals have already met their hiring needs for the year, he added.
"Asia-Pacific is still an engine of growth, so we can expect the employment market to hold up despite the current global economic market uncertainty," he said.
