Banks hire more temporary accountants, pay higher rates

There is growing demand in investment banks in London for accountants on temporary contracts, recruitment companies said.

Kathryn Gilchrist, a manager at Michael Page City, said: "Since Christmas there has been a recovery in demand for temps to work in financial markets. We are suddenly extremely busy.'

Rival firms report a similar phenomenon. Christine MacDonald, manager of temporary assignments at Joslin Rowe, said the past few weeks have been very busy: 'Banks were looking for temps between Christmas and New Year. That's been unheard of in the past.'

Andy Davis, associate director at Morgan McKinley, said banks were looking in particular for product and financial controllers with accountancy qualifications.

The resurgence in demand for temps comes after several lean years. In 2002, Michael Page International, which derives more than 60% of its revenues from temporary appointments, reported a 19% drop in revenues from its finance, city and accountancy business. It said poor hiring in the City of London was to blame.

Recruiters attributed the current rebound to improving market conditions, especially higher trading volumes. The average number of trades per day on the London Stock Exchange rose 35% in December 2003 compared to the year before and 65% per cent in November from October.

This has created a need for more back office staff to settle trades and calculate profit and loss, said recruiters.

The need for temporary accountants may not endure. Gilchrist said most banks plan to hire extra permanent staff for operations roles and that temporary hiring is a stop-gap measure.

In the meantime, temps are in a strong position to demand higher pay. MacDonald said pay had risen by 2 to 3 (€2.9 to €4.3) an hour over the past few months. Evans said a temporary product controller with a few years' experience can command 30 an hour, which translates to around 65,000 a year, compared to 50,000 a year for comparable permanent staff.

Combined with stronger demand for temps, he said this has inspired some product controllers to jettison their permanent positions. 'In the past few months I've seen half a dozen good candidates who would never usually consider working the contract market,' he said.