Financial services much healthier than IT or telecoms - headhunters survey

The financial services industry has its problems, but a survey of leading headhunters suggests it is in much better condition than some other sectors.

In a worldwide poll of its members, the Association of Executive Search Professionals (AESC) said 47% described the financial services sector as "ailing" or "ailing but improving" - the two most pessimistic categories.

The figures for telecommunications and information technology were much worse, at 87% and 82%.

The best performing of 15 sectors rated were government, health care and pharmaceuticals. The AESC said the not-for-profit sector had also remained fairly strong.

About 43% of firms said the financial services sector was "stable". Just 11% said it was "healthy", while none thought it was "very healthy".

The headhunters were upbeat about their own industry. About 70% of firms in Europe said they were optimistic about the outlook for the search sector for the rest of this year, compared with 67% in the US.