Demand for planners outweighs supply
Job advertisements for the financial planning industry continue to climb, with the most popular positions advertised being those for advisers with 18 months experience and offered a salary of $65,000.
The number of jobs advertised in NSW and the ACT in the five months ending February 28, 2006 reached record levels over the first two months of 2006, with 357 vacant positions being publicised in February alone.
The lack of applicants able to fill these advertised roles in the industry has led eJobs Recruitment Specialists, who conducted the research, to describe the current situation as being the “lowest ‘talent pool’ we’ve ever encountered”.
The recruitment firm feels the prevailing circumstances means many jobs will continue to be advertised over and over until filled by a suitable candidate.
Financial planning roles dominated the positions advertised with a high number of consumer planning positions on offer. Typically, these jobs were with institutions with regional branches and were accompanied by salaries of $50,000 per annum.
The most popular financial planning positions in the market were for advisers with 18 months experience and offered a salary level of $65,000.
Jobs for paraplanners were also in abundant supply. Junior paraplanner salaries started from around $42,000, with many roles comparable to some experienced client service officer positions (CSO). According to eJobs, the situation highlights a growing trend to attract people with CSO experience into paraplanning rather than recruiting qualified individuals with no experience. Reinforcing this observation was the fact that 90 per cent of the paraplanning jobs advertised were for candidates with more that one years experience.
Entry-level positions were mostly in the form of CSO jobs that required applicants to be PS 146 qualified, with an associated salary between $32,000 and $37,000. CSO candidates with 6 months experience could expect to be paid around $40,000, while those with 12 months experience could expect a remuneration level of up to $50,000.
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