Survey Predicts Strong Job Market in 2008

The job market at large financial advisory firms is expected to remain strong in 2008, despite worries about the recent credit crisis, according to a recent survey by Claymore Partners LLC.

The 2008 Financial Services Talent Acquisition Survey found that 52% of advisory firms plan to increase their hiring of professionals next year, while 29% said hiring levels would be similar to 2007 and 19% said hiring would decrease.

“Specific investment banking and mortgage firms and areas that are deeply and directly impacted by the credit crisis are reducing hiring plans, but the impact does not seem to be widespread at this point,” said Steven Landberg, a managing director at Greenwich, Conn.-based Claymore and author of the survey.

The top areas for hiring will be in information technology and sales. About 70 percent of survey participants said they have a great need to fill those types of positions. Many firms are introducing electronic-trading platforms and risk-management programs, driving the need to hire IT professionals for on-site work.

“In the financial services world, IT is a pretty high-end function,” Landberg said. “These folks are really hard to find.”

Ninety percent of the firms polled said they didn't think the volatility in the credit markets would affect their hiring plans, but an increase in outsourcing will probably eliminate many back-office jobs.

The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.

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