The number of advertised financial planning roles have increased 17 per cent year-on-year, showing stronger demand for financial planning staff as firms continue to recover from the global financial crisis (GFC).
The latest eJobs Recruitment Specialists market commentary found advertised financial planning roles rose by 4.5 per cent nationally over the last three months to 31 July, with Queensland (44 per cent) and South Australia (21 per cent) leading the way.
Victoria experienced a slight increase of just 3 per cent, while New South Wales went backwards by 3 per cent.
The state lagging the furthest behind was Western Australia, with job advertisements falling by 17 per cent.
The report said that the fact numbers fell in July 2010 and rose in July 2011 suggested stronger demand for staff this financial year.
The report also said there was no evidence of increased candidate supply, but rather a tighter candidate market.
For the first time, eJobs also undertook a survey of paraplanners to find that of those that responded, 70 per cent were no longer acting as paraplanners.
The main reason for this was a result of career progression (often into a financial adviser role) as well as remuneration, legislation and job recognition factors.
The report found that the majority of these candidates who wanted to move on to other roles had to change firms in order to progress, more often than not to a bank.
It found that many paraplanners also found their way into education and compliance positions with dealer groups and banks.
