How hot is emerging markets hiring, honestly?

In a sign that there may be something exciting going on in the outer reaches of Europe and other non-Western provinces, Citigroup has hired 16 people for its emerging markets business.

These include: 1 former head of Russian equities from Morgan Stanley; four new heads of sales (for Russian equities, in Russia; for CEEMEA equities, in London; for CEEMEA equities, in New York; and a head of sales in South Africa); 1 Moscow based head of CEEMEA consumer research; 1 researcher covering South African platinum and gold companies; one researcher covering African and Middle Eastern banks (based in Dubai); one researcher covering Israeli companies; one head of CEEMEA Delta 1; one CEEMEA trader based in New York; 1 senior Russian trader; 1 senior Israeli equity trader; 1 sales trader in New York; 1 sales trader in Dubai and....1 sales trader in Russia.

Given that Citigroup doesn't mention when all these people arrived, it's unlikely they turned up over the past week. In all probability they dribbled in over time.

This is not to derogate the enthusiasm for emerging markets growth. Other banks have been recruiting too.

Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, UBS, and VTB Capital have all been hiring in CEEMEA. Rennaissance Capital is busy looking for "the best talent" in South Africa, where Absa Capital and Merrill Lynch are also engaged in expansion. BarCap and RBS have declared investment banking growth intentions in the Middle East.

However, anyone thinking emerging markets recruitment is a panacea for slowing hiring elsewhere may be disappointed. The head of one emerging markets recruitment firm says "very few" banks are hiring for their emerging markets businesses at the moment and there's no premium to be had for speaking an 'emerging markets language.'

Elvira Muratova, a consultant at emerging markets recruitment firm New Millennium Group, confirms it's not all go. She says there's unlikely to be much further hiring for emerging markets teams this year: "All the deals we are working on now are for 2011. The recruitment window for 2010 is now closed."