Recruitment firms call bottom of market

Recruitment companies are advertising for more staff, in a sign that optimism about banks' hiring plans is returning after two years of gloom.

Hanover Search and Selection, Astbury Marsden and Sheffield International are among the London-based firms that placed adverts for financial services consultants last week.

Hanover wants about 8 consultants for mid- to senior level recruitment in banking and asset management, following 'record profitability' in the first six months of this year.

Patrick Field, the managing director, said the firm had slimmed down from 60 staff in 1999 to 44 now. 'We want to grow again before we have to compete with too many rivals doing the same thing,' he said.

Paul Marsden, managing director of Astbury Marsden, said: 'The market is turning. The banks had good financial results in the last two quarters and we expect them to do a lot more hiring at bonus time next year than they did this year.'

Astbury Marsden is looking for consultants in fixed income and corporate finance. Marsden said the number of financial services consultants at the firm had risen by a quarter in the past six months, to twenty-three.

Tony Barnes, a partner at Barnes Waters, which finds staff for recruitment firms, said:

'In the last three months recruitment firms have become noticeably more bullish, at senior and junior levels of the market.' Large firms were increasing their intake of graduates, in a sure sign of rising confidence.

However he noted that some firms had expanded prematurely in the past two years, only to shed staff again when an upturn in business did not materialise.

Aidan Kennedy, a partner at the search firm Armstrong International, said there was widespread optimism about hiring by banks in parts of continental Europe as well as the UK. The Russian economy was strong and banks were considering increasing teams in Germany.

But he too said firms risked over-expansion unless they hired very selectively.

Andrew Chancellor, head of financial services at Robert Walters, said. 'Confidence is slowly coming back. We are certainly looking for more staff.'

Another sign of optimism came last week from Lehman Brothers, which encouraged its employees to bring in new recruits by offering them a $10,000 finders' fee.

Lawyers may also benefit from an upturn in hiring by recruitment firms. In May a County Court ordered Hanover to pay Waters Barnes a fee of 8,000 for finding it a consultant, in a dispute over whether the consultant moved independently or as part of a team.