Fund manager hiring to slow near-term

Scottish investment administration jobs are set to remain plentiful in 2006. But money managers looking to switch employers in Scotland could find their options limited.

Scottish fund companies report limited hiring plans for 2006. Martin Currie Investment Management, which last year hired seven money managers in Edinburgh, says its hiring spree is at an end.

Rival boutique SVM Asset Management, which recruited three fund managers and a trainee in November, says it plans to make just one more hire in coming months.

Baillie Gifford, Scotland's largest fund manager in terms of assets under management, plans to add 'small numbers of staff in most areas.'

The best bet for fund manager jobs in Scotland this year is likely to be Glasgow-based Britannic Asset Management. After hiring six fund managers last year, it plans to add another 14 in 2006 following its merger with Resolution Asset Management.

Once in, stay put

If this doesn't sound particularly promising for fund managers hoping to find new jobs in Scotland after bonuses are paid out, it probably isn't.

But Edinburgh's headhunters say it goes with the territory. "People tend to sit tight in Scotland," says Richard Fletcher of search firm Fletcher Jones. "There are fewer options to move on. Once a fund has hired good people, it can usually hold onto them more easily than a fund in London."

Brian Simmons, communications manager for Standard Life Investments, which employs over 100 fund managers in Edinburgh, confirms the tendency to stick around. "We have a staff turnover rate of 6.5%, compared to a national financial services average of 16%," he says.

Standard Life is looking to hire fund managers in 2006, but the numbers are unlikely to be significant: over the past five years it has added 36 new fund management roles in Edinburgh after allowing for departures.

Staff turnover may fall to new lows this year, making additional recruits less necessary: headhunters say fund managers at Standard Life Investments are hanging on for the profits of demutualisation, expected to take place in the summer.