Confirmation that technology hiring is in a terrible state

The first quarter of 2010 may have been exceptionally good for IT recruitment within investment banks, but a combination of hiring freezes, cancelled jobs, and a preference for contract hiring has meant that permanent opportunities shrunk by around 30% for the comparable period this year.

Research by IT in finance recruiters McGregor Boyall suggests that permanent technology vacancies in investment banks are down by 26.6% year-on-year. Financial technology recruiters 7 Fifty Two Solutions says it's closer to 30%, while Astbury Marsden says it's seen a 21% uptick. It does, however, put this down to new business wins and concedes that the permanent IT job market is generally down on last year.

"Most IT managers within investment banks have been forced to divert budgets away from front office projects towards regulatory-driven change initiatives and this has impacted headcount spend," says Laurie Boyall, managing director of McGregor Boyall. "Even here, most of the recruitment is on contract basis."

Part of the problem for those with aspirations for a permanent position is that many roles were transmogrifying into contract roles at the last minute. In some cases, though, they were cancelled all together.

"A number of banks cancelled live roles across the board, while others have paused recruitment until the situation improves," says Cat Halliwell, sales operations manager at 7 Fifty Two Solutions. "Most new roles are driven by large strategic change initiatives across both equities and fixed income product areas."

However, certain banks - notably BarCap, HSBC, Credit Suisse and RBS - have continued to hire for front office IT roles, suggest recruiters, but these are in select areas.

"Flow areas of the business, equities and FX in particular, have remained active areas throughout 2011," says Ben Cowan, associate director at Astbury Marsden.