Recent research has suggested that the number of job offers to IT contractors into financial services more than doubled between April and May.
Job offers to IT contractors into financial services doubled between April and May according to research conducted by pre-employment firm Powercheck. The findings have raised fresh hope that financial services recruiters are through the worst of it following widespread redundancies in the financial sector.
The research, which also found employment offer increases in insurance (up 23%) and banking (up 19%), while suggesting light at the end of the tunnel by showing strong increases, still does not compare favourably with financial services recruitment for the same period last year.
Industry commentators have suggested that, while there has been an improvement since the first quarter of this year, there has been relatively little change in permanent contracts. However, there are tentative signs that this is set to change shortly, though it is likely to remain less buoyant than a year ago.
Bright Purple managing director Nick Price said that “Due to a number of mergers, acquisitions and takeovers in the financial services sector, many organisations are looking to professional roles in the contracting space due to the need for business change professionals, such as integrations specialists and those with strong project management experience and skills.”
“A result of the relative turmoil in the industry is that there is a large and talented pool of individuals available. While some financial services companies are undergoing official, or unofficial freezes on recruitment, there are still a number of companies who are aware that now is the perfect time to position themselves to take advantage of any future upturn by hand picking talent for critical roles from the large pool available.”