More hiring than firing, survey reveals

Money managers looking to land a new job can expect the next few months to offer their best opportunity in years, according to the latest Morgan & Banks job survey.

According to Morgan & Banks joint managing director Geoff Morgan, the survey reveals the most buoyant financial services job market since the recruitment group began its quarterly surveys in 1995.

According to the survey, nearly 40 per cent of employers in the financial services industry are looking to hire people, while only 12 per cent are intending to shed staff.

This is a 3 per cent improvement on the outlook in November last year and more than 3 per cent better than the average across all industries. Other sectors of the economy expected to boost their employment include telecommunications, information technology, retail and media.

Morgan attributes the confidence displayed by financial services employers to strong economic fundamentals and the recent bull run on the stock market.

The biggest growth appears to be in the accounting and finance arms of companies which Morgan says is an indication of the increased emphasis now being placed on back-office processing.

Victoria and Western Australia showed the strongest growth for the coming quarter, while New South Wales remained steady at its previous high level of confidence.

Morgan says large financial services businesses appear reluctant to take on new people compared to their smaller competitors. "Most of the buoyancy emanates from the small business and medium size firms," he says.

Firms of this size registered a net effect of employment intentions - the percentage intending to hire minus the percentage intending to shed - of around 40 per cent.