These are the jobs you'll always be able to stroll into this year

As we said last week, there might not be as much hiring this year as there was last year. Financial News may have reached the same conclusion: it says today that RBS won't be hiring as many equities bankers as formerly anticipated.

Nevertheless, there will be pockets of intense hiring. They are in the middle office. Subject to a degree of relevant experience, you will be able to find a job in each of them, absolutely no problem. Recruiters tell us that these pockets include:

1) Anti-money laundering jobs

"We are exceptionally busy," says Edward Manson, a senior consultant focused on compliance at the PSD Group. "In particular, we have got lots of roles focused on anti-money laundering and financial crime."

Andrew Hanson, director of financial services at Robert Walters, confirms that AML is abnormally hot. So too, he says, are jobs in compliance monitoring and advisory and product surveillance.

Most people who go into anti-money laundering have some form of legal background according to Manson.

Robert Walters' new salary survey says average salaries in AML are as follows:

0-2 yrs' exp 32 - 60k

2-4 yrs' exp 48 - 75K

4-6 yrs' exp 65 - 100k

6+ yrs' 80 - 140k+

2) Regulatory roles

As we said a few weeks' ago, demand for regulatory capital expertise has suddenly taken off.

Hanson says candidates will be able to walk into jobs if they have relevant experience in regulatory reporting (operations) and internal capital adequacy assessment (ICAAP).

Heads of regulatory reporting can now earn salaries of 95k according to Robert Walters. Regulatory accountants can expect anything up to 75k.

3) Operational risk management

"The continuing stream of new risk and control regulations means that operational risk candidates will be highly sought after," declares Hanson.

Robert Walters' salary survey suggests a head of operational risk can expect fixed pay of 85k; someone with fewer than three years' experience can expect up to 45k.

4) OTC derivatives, algorithmic trading (technology roles)

"There's big push to industrialise the OTC trade process," says Jonathan Nicholson, managing director at recruiters Astbury Marsden. "There's also big demand for technology development talent in algo trading. People who can build high volume low latency trading technologies are in big demand."

5) Anything to do with change and transformation

Glorified project managers, change and transformation staff were hot last year and are still hot this year.

"There's big demand for change, transformation and projects staff," says Jonathan Nicholson, managing director at Astbury Marsden. "It's all about driving efficiency in middle and back office processes and functions. Banks are looking to find efficiencies globally, rather than running local fiefdoms. They need change people who understand global operating platforms and the challenges of integration."

Project managers and business analysts with up to three years' post qualification experience can earn 55-70k a year according to Robert Walters, or 350-450 a day.

6) All operations roles appropriate to second jobbers

Sally Martin, associate director of investment banking and investment management operations at Robert Walters, says there's a particular candidate shortage among second jobbers for operations roles. "Firms often didn't ramp up their graduate recruitment a few years ago, and now there's a particular shortage of people at this level across the market," she explains.