Australian financial services hiring down in 2012
Australia has taken the brunt of a year-on-year decline in financial services job opportunities across Asia-Pacific with a 37 per cent decrease in roles in Q2 2012 compared to Q2 2011.
But it's a 4 per cent increase on last quarter that reveals some signs of stability within the industry which eFinancialCareers said was driven by employment in the resources and infrastructure sectors.
New roles were rare and small-scale redundancies, especially in the research field were common it said, and hiring had stopped on the investment banking front.
However financial planners and superannuation roles were stable and although hiring was lower than last year, managing director of eFinancialCareers, George McFerran said opportunities in risk should open up at banks and consulting firms with the introduction of Basel III.
Asia-Pacific experienced a less dramatic decline with Singapore posting -3 per cent and Hong Kong -18 per cent drop off in financial services jobs.
The asset management sector held the best opportunities for Asia-Pacific, proportionally less affected by recent retrenchments but buy-side firms were willing to take on bankers keen for a change, the report said.
Market volatility and a changing regulatory environment acted positively on information services roles with banks increasing the focus on risk and compliance in Q2.
Despite the continued trend of off-shoring operations roles, eFinancialCareers said the sector partially recovered due to people moving back home after being paid out and back-office hiring to replace essential staff.
Investor confidence acted poorly on the equity market with equities researchers getting the flick, many permanently as businesses re-evaluate business models in light of continuing market conditions.
Trading and derivatives roles also declined in Q2 due to continuing global uncertainty and tightened hiring budgets.
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