Fund managers are taking the long view on graduate hiring
With shrinking assets under management, battered fund performance and recent redundancies, the investment management industry has had its fair share of problems. However, just as they're less prone to hiring-and-firing than investment banks, it seems they are also less willing to make swathing cuts to their graduate intakes.
Figures from the Association of Graduate Recruiters suggest graduate numbers within investment banking and fund management will shrink by 28% this year.
However, bundling the sectors together could paint a misleading picture, says James Patching, account manager UK, at Trendence which carried out the AGR research.
"If you look at a top investment bank that usually recruits 900 graduates and it reduces that number by 200, it's a significant proportion," he says. "However, a lot of fund managers are recruiting between 15-20 people and any fluctuations cannot necessarily be put down to the economic climate."
For example, Fidelity (one of the biggest independent fund houses) has only taken on 25 graduates for 2009, while Barclays Global Investors only took on 65 during the boom of 2007.
Similarly, some big name fund management brands such as Henderson Global Investors, Aegon Asset Management, or Aberdeen Asset Management only hire between 2-6 graduates each year.
Richard Barry, head of HR at Baillie Gifford (which is taking on 8 grads this year), says: "It's safe to say that no firms will be increasing their intake this year, but a lot are remaining constant and few are cancelling their schemes altogether."
The fund management arms of investment banks are likely to curtail graduate hiring a little more vigorously.
Credit Suisse, for instance, sold part of its investment management division to Aberdeen, and Societe Generale sold its asset management arm into a joint venture with Credit Agricole. The merger between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch will also undoubtedly mean fewer investment management grad hires.
However, one head of graduate recruitment for the fund management arm of a bulge bracket bank is keen to point out that numbers are still (relatively) buoyant.
"Banks are obviously reviewing their graduate numbers, but I've not heard of any dramatic reductions," he says.
There are exceptions of course. For example, we understand that Schroders has significantly scaled back its graduate numbers for 2009, and AXA Investment Managers says that its graduate opportunities are all 'on hold'.
Five fund managers with graduate recruitment programmes:
<a href="https://www.aegonam.co.uk/graduates/" target="_blank"Aegon Asset Management
