Jobs up, but available candidates down

Financial planning job numbers jumped 21 per cent in January 2011 compared to January 2010, while they were notably up from seasonal lows in December, according to eJobs Recruitment Specialists.

However, there is a shortage of experienced candidates and there has been a drop in new entrants to the industry, Trevor Punnet (pictured) of eJobs Financial Planning said.

The statistics revealed a stronger start to the New Year than had been seen for a long time, Punnett said. Growth in job numbers was particularly good in Western Australia (up 104 per cent since December 2010 and up 124 per cent over the year), and Queensland numbers saw a huge jump in job ads in January, up 69 per cent from December 2010, Punnett said.

“Presumably financial advice and risk insurance is more ‘top of mind’ among many Queenslanders given a focus on their personal and business situations,” Punnett said.

New South Wales saw an increase of 30 per cent on the year, yet job numbers shrank in Victoria/Tasmania and South Australia, down 5 per cent and 20.5 per cent on the year respectively.

Punnett noted that the demand for candidates would continue to increase over the next few months as practices emerged from the survival phase to start growing again, assuming investment markets rise in 2011 as predicted. Other factors that would promote increasing job numbers included further establishment and consolidation of fee-for-service business models and the move towards implementing the Future of Financial Advice reforms, as well as improving sentiment among practice principals, he added.

However, practices may find it more difficult to source the talent they’re looking for since those requiring experience in terms of paraplanners and financial planners would compete for the few qualified and adequately experienced candidates available, Punnett said. He also noted that there were fewer new entrants to the industry, and doubted whether the increasing educational requirements the industry was aiming for would help win back people to the industry.

“Perhaps before this is introduced the financial planning industry needs to regain or reposition itself as the vital and vibrant service industry it was regarded as not so long ago,” he said.

He also said that according to My Career statistics, the average salary increase for the sector was just over 1 per cent in 2010.

“Given the lack of candidate supply and the increasing demand for staff, salaries will come under pressure,” Punnet said.

However, some organisations have been successful in attracting new advisers into their apprenticeships, academies, institutes or business schools, he said.