Financial services job outlook is grim
Financial services job prospects for the next three months are the grimmest seen for some time after the events of September 11, figures from the latestTMP Worldwidejob index survey reveal.
In the survey released today, employment expectation figures have taken a battering since the previous quarterly index with 24.5 per cent of companies intending to hire more staff. At the same time 12.8 per cent of companies intend on downsizing, resulting in a 11.7 per cent net effect of companies expecting to increase staff numbers in the next quarter.
The current figure has plummeted 10.6 per cent from the previous quarter’s net effect result of 22.4 per cent, and has dropped 22.6 per cent from the 34.5 per cent net effect recorded in the same quarter last year.
TMP Worldwide director Ian Burns says the events of September 11 and its repercussions, have been the greatest factor in the drop of employer confidence within the financial services sector.
“Small businesses are behaving more like consumers, reacting to the market and the lack of predictability of the future. The bigger businesses have been rocked by the substantial shift in the market place, shifts that are still happening,” Burns says.
Small financial services businesses with less than 20 employees recorded an increase of 25.2 percent new staff and an 8.1 per cent decrease, resulting in a 17.1 per cent net effect for next quarter hiring intentions, while businesses with more than 200 staff reached a low 0.3 per cent net effect after recording a 19 percent increase and 18.8 per cent downsizing.
Burns says these big organisations are focused on financial returns, and are being aggressive about reshaping their business in the current economic climate.
“There is a lot of churn happening at the big end of financial services, which is causing a lot of disruption on the people side,” he says.
“There is more internal change going on, and not much hiring. The big businesses are reorganising in a bid to make sure they are winning the game.”
But in the middle of these gloomy economic and employment times, Burns believes opportunity awaits for groups who distinguish themselves against the pack and drive a different strategy.
“If everyone else is downsizing, and following conventional reactionary measure, there is great opportunity to break out and take market share,” Burns says.
The Federal election to be held in less than two weeks and the nearing Christmas retail period were other reasons Burns pointed to for the significantly lower employment confidence.
“We are in panic mode, everyone is tightening their belts. Financial services is competitive and this will continue.”
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