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Hedge funds recruit while investment banks suffer

Monday 22nd February 2010

By Mike Jones

Hedge funds and stockbrokers will attempt to take advantage of volatile markets in 2010 while Investment Banks are still feeling the fallout from the collapse of Lehman Brothers and a lack of confidence in their sector, according to new figures from pre-employment screening providerPowerchex.

The study compared employment offer numbers in January 2009 to January 2010 and found that hedge funds and stock brokers increased their recruitment by 109% and 81% respectively.

Powerchex also found that investment banks were not anticipating a busy year as they were hiring 60% fewer people compared to last year.

Overall the financial services industry increased employment offers by only 11% and Alexandra Kelly, Director at Powerchex, believes confidence in the city is still shaky.

"We have seen signs that the economy is on the up but firms are still being very cautious as many believe any recovery we may have seen is very fragile and could easily be knocked off course," she said.

"Looking at January 2010 compared to January 2009, there has only been an overall increase of 11% in employment offers, and this is despite the fact that the recession has officially ended in the UK and the figures for 2009 reflect the environment only a few months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers."

The figures also revealed that recruitment slowed when comparing January 2010 to December 2009. Investment Managers (24%), Hedge Funds (33%), Stockbrokers (5%) and IT contractors working within financial services (46%) all saw a decline in
employment offers.

With financial results due in the next month firms are taking a cautious approach as confidence in the economy could be heavily affected depending on the financial success or failure of firms in 2009.

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Recruitment Today

End of beginning as downturn slows slightly
The seasonally-adjusted CIPS/Markit Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) rose to 42.9 in April from 39.1 the previous month, but was lower than last year’s figure of 49.7. Despite remaining below the neutral 50.0 mark (a figure less than 50 indicates a contraction) for the 13th month running, the PMI moved further from February’s joint survey record low.