Employment boom shifts to the provinces
A new study suggests employment in Ireland's booming funds industry is set to increase further. It also shows staff turnover is high and fund servicing companies are flocking to the countryside.
Employment levels in Ireland's financial services industry will rise another 16% this year to a new high of 7,900, compared to a 13% increase last year, according to the latest survey conducted by the Dublin Funds Industry Association (DFIA).
The survey reveals that vacancies in the industry at the start of 2006 reached 439, with fund administration and NAV (Net Asset Value) functions the most challenging areas to hire for.
Deirdre Norris of the DFIA, says the big growth area for the future is set to be alternative investment fund servicing. "Ireland is the world leader in servicing alternative investment funds, a position the industry would like to maintain and as this is such a growth area, there is a consequent increased demand for resources with alternative investment funds, especially hedge funds, experience," she tells us.
There are a few clouds on the balmy horizon, however. One is that once Irish fund firms have managed to get people in, they seem to be having problems retaining them - staff turnover levels in 2005 reached 24% and only one-third of who left their jobs remained in the industry.
And thanks to high Dublin house prices and the city's corset-tight financial services labour market, the DFIA's survey also underscores the fact that fund companies are migrating to the countryside. At the start of 2006 there were 950 fund staff working outside Dublin, a figure which Norris says is set to double over the next few years as fund companies fish in a "wider pool of people."
