Are We Near the Bottom?
A Moody's senior economist recently voiced hope that the financial job market is close to hitting bottom. "The number of job losses is going to get smaller going forward," Marisa DiNatale, a senior economist at Moody's Economy.com, told InvestmentNews.
Moody's goes so far as to predict the financial sector (which includes not just securities and investments, but also insurance, real estate, credit cards and other retail banking activities) will add jobs on balance during next year's first quarter - although adding the usual caveat that when the jobs recovery does come, its pace will be tepid.
As a financial professional, you spend your days down in those trenches that macroeconomists like DiNatale are trying to survey from cruising altitude. What are you seeing right now? In your neck of the woods, are offices still emptying out? Or, are there signs that the need for workers in your company, business unit, or functional specialty is stabilizing... or even that employers might actually be getting ready to hire again?