Australian finance sector job opportunities tumble
There was a one-third drop in job opportunities in the financial services sector in Australia in the third quarter of 2012 compared to the previous year, according to eFinancialCareers' quarterly Jobs Barometer.
The drop in Australia was the largest in the world for that period, although it was a similar pattern globally, with all major regions recording a double-digit drop in finance jobs.
Continental Europe (-28 per cent), the UK (-24 per cent) and the US (-18 per cent) all suffered major declines.
"The last 12 months have shown that Australia is not immune to the redundancies that have swept through global financial services," said eFinancialCareers managing director Asia-Pacific George McFerran.
"The pace of hiring has slowed, and organisations are being very conscious about costs. Hiring in the financial services sector has always been very up and down, but this time the contraction is more fundamental."
Finance jobs in the Asia Pacific region overall, including Australia, fell 16 per cent, although no breakdown by sector was available for Australia specifically.
The biggest losses in the region were in credit (-28 per cent), because banks were not taking on as many clients in Asia so there were fewer clients to perform credit checks on; and derivatives roles, which fell 22 per cent due to reduced demand for structured products.
There were still major growth areas, however.
Capital markets jobs saw 30 per cent growth, with demand in risk, compliance, quantitative analytics and IT; insurance jobs undertook large-scale hiring and grew 23 per cent, with strong demand due to natural disasters; risk management jobs were up 19 per cent, with operation risk in demand as banks strove to meet Basel III milestones; and private banking opportunities grew 16 per cent.
Hiring is likely to stay much the same for the rest of this year, with banks focused on replacement hiring only, McFerran said.
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