Pity the victims of the back office

It's tempting to conclude that the back office is being unfairly targeted for redundancy.

Most of the latest 1,800 cuts revealed at Morgan Stanley will come from support functions, Citigroup plans to trim its operations, Bank of America/Merrill is set to scale-back admin teams and Lazard's intention to reduce staff by 10% will mainly affect the back office. And 2,300 staff affected by RBS's latest round of cuts are unlikely to come from the front office.

If you're back office victim, there are still some opportunities to get back in again.

Andrew Hanson, head of investment banking operations, Robert Walters, admits there was a "significant" slowdown in the number of roles on the market towards the end of last year, but says things have picked up slightly in recent weeks - in some areas at least.

"We're seeing some roles within the equities space and good demand for candidates with experience in commodity operations - be that settlements, trade support or documentation," he says. "What's more, we have a decent volume of roles within corporate actions, stock lending and project management across all asset classes."

Similarly, Emily Ayre, manager of the asset management and investment banking operations division at Morgan McKinley, points to "pockets of hiring" within areas like asset servicing, collateral management and trade support.

However, with an over-supply of candidates, and the demand coming from niche sectors, investment banks are not surprisingly becoming more rigid about who they take on.

"Candidates are advised to be flexible and realistic," says Ayre. "This applies to the type of organisation they want to work for as well as their salary expectations. Widening their choice to include several types of financial institutions, not just the top-tier investment banks, means they can hopefully increase their options."