Evidence that most hiring really is in the back and middle office

If you work in, or aspire to work in, a front office banking position, this may not come as a surprise, but it may come as a disappointment. A large proportion of banking jobs are in so-called infrastructure or support positions.

By comparison, 'front office,' 'client-facing,' 'big-paying' positions are in the minority. And thanks to regulation, the ratio of front office to support roles will probably even shift further in favour of support roles in future.

Evidence of the back office slant comes from Barclays Capital. Dixit Joshi, head of equities for EMEA at BarCap, told Financial News that of the 700 equities professionals hired by the bank last year, two thirds were 'infrastructure' professionals; only one third were for the front office.

Recruiters and HR professionals say this is high, but not totally abnormal. "A 50:50 ratio might be more usual," says the head of HR at one US bank. "But you'd expect it to be higher where there's a lot of technology investment, or where the FSA thinks systems need to be strengthened."

Andrew Hanson, director of financial services at recruitment firm Robert Walters, tells us there's been a "significant pick-up" in hiring for finance, projects, operations, technology, risk, compliance, and other 'infrastructure' roles. "In some cases, banks cut too broadly," he says.

But while infrastructure roles account for around 66% of hiring, their share of the costs remains negligible. As we reported last month, our recent survey indicated that front office bonuses were eight times larger than those in the middle office this year.

Sophie Black, director of performance and reward at Ernst & Young, suggests this may change: "With regulation, back office costs and staffing relative to the front office will increase."