Is the worst over for Irish FS recruitment firms?

Most recruitment firms focusing on the financial services sector have gone from feast to famine over the last year, with the previously buoyant funds industry grinding to a halt and the big banks enforcing hiring freezes. However, it's tempting to conclude that they've turned a corner.

Frank Collins, president of the National Recruitment Federation, Ireland, tells us: "In January and February of this year most financial services recruiters were forced to make redundancies and are now running on the bare bones. However, the indications we're getting from our monthly meetings - where we view the revenues of these firms - are that the worst may be over."

Andrea Clarkson, manager, financial services, at Premier Group in Dublin, says that a lot of the roles recruiters are being mandated for are relatively niche.

"After a difficult six months we're just getting to the point where our financial services team is hitting targets again. If you were a recruiter that relied on volume roles from the funds industry or retail banking, then you'll struggle and financial services firms are taking on recruiters for more specialised roles."

She says recently they made some hire for senior operations roles within the funds and life industries and for roles like product specialists in global and Irish equities and general insurance underwriters, as well as getting work from start up companies.

Collins suggests many have gone one step further than that, attempting to diversify into CV advice, redundancy guidance and other outplacement services. One recent example is The Panel, which expanded into this area in March.

However, one recruiter which previously focused on the funds sector and has since expanded into insurance, says things are still pretty grim: "There is virtually no recruitment in the funds sector, and it's only by virtue of the fact that we moved into insurance and reinsurance that we're still solvent."

Bank of Ireland stated last week that it is not only freezing hiring, but is not replacing staff who leave. You'd have thought the same could be said of the other banks receiving government bailouts.

But Collins says there's work to be had: "No bank is going to state it's hiring people at the moment, but they're still taking people on even if it's in much smaller numbers."