Recruitment 'austerity' Set To Continue

Leading pre-employment screening firm announces recruitment figures for October. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) November 18, 2010 - The number of job offers made within the Financial Services Sector fell again last month, a recent study has found. The news comes on the back of two consecutive months of declining recruitment activity.

The study was commissioned by city pre-employment screening firm, Powerchex, which looked at confirmed employment offers made during October 2010. The figures showed that 5% fewer offers were made than in the previous month, after falls of 10% in August and 4% in September.

It wasn't all bad news, with Investment Banks (up 33%), Stockbrokerage firms (up 20%), and IT contractors working within financial services (up 17%) all making more offers in October than in the previous month. However, the overall number of employment offers still fell for the 3 months running, with Insurance firms (down 3%), Hedge Funds (down 18%), and Investment Managers (down 22%) all reducing their recruitment intake.

Powerchex MD Alexandra Kelly was not surprised by the October figures: "After a solid first half of 2010, we are really seeing the Financial Services Sector tightening its belt when it comes to recruitment. Many companies overextended themselves at the beginning of the year, and are now reducing their intake of new people, especially as Government spending cuts really start to take effect."

"However," continues Kelly, "it is important to add a little context to these figures by remembering how bad things were 12 months ago. If we compare the October figures with the corresponding month last year, we see that recruitment activity is up by 20%, and that is despite the declines of the last 3 months."

"What is critically important is that recruitment professionals and compliance officers do not lose sight of the risks involved in bringing new people into an organisation. The FSA is always looking to make an example of any firms who run into problems having breached their guidelines; better to be safe than sorry."

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