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New data released shows that there are still a lack of job opportunities within investment banking as the sector struggles to regain public confidence.

Powerchex, a pre-employment screening firm, gathered the figures which show that stockbrokers and hedge funds have seen confidence slowly return but since the collapse of the Lehman Brothers, investment banking as a whole has suffered and, as a result, there are very little job opportunities for contract or permanent staff.

To gain this data, Powerchex made comparisons between the work opportunities between January last year and January this year. During this period recruitment for stockbrokers and hedge funds increased by 81% and 109% respectively. Investment Banks are actually planning to hire 60% less staff throughout 2010 than they did in 2009.

Powerchex also saw a decline in hiring between December 2009 and January 2010 with job opportunities for stockbrokers, hedge funds, investment managers and IT contractors slowing over this period. Firms continue their cautious approach as the economy continues to struggle to leave recession. As financial results are due in less than two months, the sector is waiting to learn of the official fall out from the economic downturn of the past twelve months during which time many UK businesses have failed thus having a detrimental effect on the economy.

Director of Powerchex, Alexandra Kelly, commented: “We have seen signs that the economy is on the up but firms are still being very cautious as many believe any recovery we may have seen is very fragile and could easily be knocked off course.”

The recession has caused problems across industry over the past eighteen months. Not only have businesses been faced with the prospect of their own insolvency but they have also had to prepare for the prospects of their customers becoming insolvent and the subsequent knock-on effect on their finances.

Concept Information Technology, a recruiter for IT services, has spoken out about the steps they have taken to protect themselves against bad debt. They have admitted to using a debtor protection policy courtesy of Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance.

Concept have admitted that they are glad they took such a step as they have actually had to use the policy protection over the past couple of years. Back in 2008 one of their customers became insolvent. However, due to their protection policy they actually received payment within 30 days of the customer filing for administration.

Speaking to The Recruiter, managing director of Concept IT Chris Short, said: “Taking out a debtor protection policy has provided us with long-term peace of mind and has ensured that we’ve been safeguarded against bad debts. Knowing that our working capital is protected has enabled us to continue our growth strategy and expand our client base further without fear of future failures – something that has helped us to achieve record turnover despite the tough economic climate.”

Speaking for Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, client manager Alex Fiddian, commented: “It takes only one bad debt to significantly impact a business’ cash flow. We are seeing more and more of our customers use debtor protection policies as a safety net to protect themselves from defaults.”

Research conducted by Parity on behalf of the Recruiter has shown fresh challenges facing the financial sector. There has been much speculation that the economy has now stabilised and should be showing signs of recovery. As such, companies are making plans for new business and new projects. However, it would appear that they are not planning the staff that they will actually require to carry out these IT led projects, therefore they are likely to be reliant on IT contractors who are able to start work with short notice.

The Parity research showed that 86% of the firms surveyed had not yet found the staff they would require for IT projects that are in the pipeline. The remaining 14% stated that they had briefed their HR departments on their future staffing requirements.

Pre-recruitment screening firm, Powerchex, stated that recruitment within the financial sector in the period since June has shown a decline of more than a third in comparison with the same period last year. Also, they confirmed that there was a drop of fifty per cent in the number of IT contractors requesting screening for work within the financial services sector during the month of September.

Chief executive of Parity, Alwyn Welch, accused many IT bosses of being “short sighted”. He continued: “Ultimately, if your IT function is not ready to go when the green light is pressed on a project, you won’t be able to react quickly enough to market changes. Financial organizations talk about moving on from the credit crunch but until that message gets through to their IT department, they will stay in recessionary mode.”

Parity Group, which provides IT services and recruitment, has announced their interim results for the period ending 30^th June 2009. Their results show that the Group continued to experience “difficult trading conditions” during this period. This is further evidence that the IT sector has a long way to go before it recovers from the current economic downturn.

Parity Group’s revenue was £62.8m, down from £66.3m in the same period last year. Their operating profit had dropped from £735k last year to £336k in this period. The Group has been focussed on cutting costs over this period. This has included the closure of two offices, in Leeds and Hemel Hempstead.

Chief executive of Parity, Alwyn Welch, made the following comments on the results: “We are continuing to experience difficult trading conditions due to the severity of the recession. Demand for skills in our areas of focus in Resources has held well, whilst the discretionary nature of much of Solutions’ business means that market has continued to see extended procurement cycles, project delays and cancellations.”

He continued: “We expect market conditions to remain difficult during the remainder of this year and the first half of 2010. We will therefore continue to manage with care, balancing the need to retain and motivate our staff and to invest in sales capacity to compete, with the need to be prudent, which has so far delivered a resilient performance in Resources and an improving situation in Solutions. Management’s expectations for trading performance for the year remain unchanged.”

Employment screening firm Powerchex has noted that employment opportunities are finally increasing in the financial services sector.

Financial services recruitment had been badly affected by the recent economic slowdown with 81% fewer jobs for investment bankers in April to June this year in comparison to the same period last year. Employment opportunities within insurance firms fell by 26% over the same period. Employees across the sector, from IT contractors to stockbrokers and managers saw employment opportunities slump by over 40%.

However, when the second quarter of 2009 is compared to the first quarter, signs of a recovery are notable. During this period stockbroker recruitment has increased by 77%. Recruitment by insurance firms and investment managers has increased by 8%. IT contractor hiring has only fallen by 3% this year which is another sign that the sector is starting to recover.

Managing director of Powerchex, Alexandra Kelly says, “Things are certainly improving within financial services. Firms have been recruiting quite aggressively recently as the economic situation stabilises and they attempt to make the most of a very talented pool of people who are desperate for work. Things haven’t returned to last year’s levels but there are plenty of jobs out there.”

Recruitment firm, Hays has carried out its second survey since the start of the current economic downturn. Their findings show that recruiters consider leadership skills as one of the most important attributes when hiring for their IT departments. This research is likely to encourage jobless contractors to talk up their experience of management processes and team leadership when applying for positions.

Hays commented that managerial techies are still one of the hardest groups to recruit within the IT sector. This has remained the case despite a wider pool of candidates who are less likely to negotiate about low pay rates.

Managing directors of Hays IT, James Lloyd Townshend said that pay has been “driven down because candidates are more readily available and generally have less negotiating power.”

The survey also showed that one of the main issues for employers is the ‘cultural fit’ of the candidate into their organisation. Many employers are now spending more time and money on developing the communication skills and leadership qualities of their IT management staff. This has led to 80% of the firms surveyed responding that they had confidence in their IT managers to do the job required of them. Hays reported that the 122 IT bosses that they surveyed said they were looking for business intelligence consultants and enterprise architects.

However, the latest REC Report on Jobs reported no shortage of any particular contract IT skill. This report said, “Although temporary/contract staff billings decreased for an eleventh successive month in June, the latest fall was the least marked since last September. The slower reduction in short-term appointments reflected a weaker drop in demand for temp staff.”