Job opportunities in financial services increased by 10% between February 2013 and March 2014, according to recruiter Morgan McKinley.
In contrast, the number of candidates actively seeking employment was up 6%, suggesting that the recruitment market is starting to become more candidate-driven.
The resurgent IPO market is one of the factors driving hiring in the City, according to the research, and this is expected to have a ‘positive knock-on effect’ on recruitment within the rest of the financial services sector over the coming months.
Financial services employers are increasingly hiring staff into permanent positions rather than just relying on contract staff.
Morgan McKinley said salary was a major motivating factor for job seekers. The average salary increase for those securing new jobs in March 2014 was 20%, compared with 15% in February 2014.
Hakan Enver, operations director with Morgan McKinley Financial Services, said that growth in financial-services hiring had brought challenges. “The permanent jobs market is particularly slow to hire,” he pointed out. “Often, hiring managers will interview a number of candidates in order to provide a benchmark, resulting in the time-to-hire process taking weeks, or even months. This, coupled with increased visa implications, which have affected who institutions can hire, has resulted in the early stages of a skills shortage in certain areas.”
He added that the rise in salaries was a sign that employers are willing to offer above-market basic salaries “to incentivise candidates to join their business as opposed to a competitor”.
Sally Percy is editor of The Treasurer