The downs (and now ups) of Ireland's fund industry job market
Ireland's funds industry lost nearly 750 jobs from the peak of 2008 to the end of last year, with most major houses cutting their cloth as the financial crisis hit home and assets under administration tumbled. Now, however, employment is on the up.
The Irish Funds Industry Association has supplied us with the latest employment figures, which illustrate exactly how much pain the industry has experienced over the last two years.
As the table below shows, job numbers peaked at 9,544 at the end of 2008 (on the back of doubled digit percentile growth since 2001) and then fell by 7% throughout last year.
The good news, though, is that the industry appears to be recovering again. Total assets under administration in Ireland now stand at €1.8 trillion, which represents an all time high.
As we've alluded to previously, fund administrators in Ireland are also gaining more work through increased numbers of hedge funds redomiciling here and the rising popularity of 'Newcits' strategies among European funds.
Job numbers a beginning to reflect this, with employment creeping over 9,000 again so far this year.
"Month on month, the number of new mandates in the funds industry is increasing," says Robin Craig, director of recruiters Career Compass. "Business development and more traditional fund accounting roles are emerging, but it's still a long way off the numbers seen in 2007-08."
By far the largest proportion of roles (47%) are within fund accounting, according to IFIA figures, followed by transfer agency (17%), custody and trustee (6%) and client relationship manager (3%). The remaining 27% come under the category 'other', which includes finance, compliance, IT and senior management positions.
