Jobs market seen strong in '08

Despite the credit crisis, the job market at large financial advisory firms is expected to be strong in 2008, according to a recent Claymore Partners LLC survey. Fully 52% of the 350 advisory firms polled in the 2008 Financial Services Talent Acquisition Survey, conducted last month, said they were still planning to increase the hiring of professionals next year. Just 19% of respondents said that hiring would decrease, with 29% indicating hiring would be at a level similar to that of 2007. The positions with the highest demand are in information technology and sales because they're the hardest to fill, according to the study. Meanwhile, there are fewer opportunities for back-office jobs because many companies are outsourcing those functions. Fully 90% of the firms surveyed didn't think the volatility in the credit markets would affect their hiring plans. The ease of hiring for IT jobs in the financial services arena depends on how high-ranking the IT jobs are, said the study's author, Steven Landberg, a managing director at Greenwich, Conn.-based Claymore. "In the financial services world, IT is a pretty high-end function," he said. "These folks are really hard to find." Presidium Retirement Advisers Inc., which had three employees two years ago, has grown to 22 employees and expects to continue to grow next year, said Rick Canipe, chief compliance officer at the Charlotte, N.C.-based company, which has $120 million in assets under management. After making seven hires this year, he estimated that he will add eight advisers in 2008. Mr. Canipe attributed the demand to baby boomers' reaching retirement age and seeking advice on supplementing their savings and Social Security. In contrast to the encouraging hiring trend reflected in the Claymore Partners survey, another study, by the Madbury, N.H.-based Net Future Institute, indicated that just 32% of large businesses with 10,000 or more employees were planning to hire more people next year. Mr. Landberg expressed surprise at the Claymore survey results. Because of economic uncertainty, it seemed that the high demand shown in the 2006 survey would be tough to top, he said. "We thought, coming off a very strong '07, that '08 would be pretty flat," Mr. Landberg said.