A new wave of fear is impacting Irish financial services recruitment

Ireland's domestic banks have their own problems, but the trading-related losses spurring redundancies in investment banks in Europe, Asia and the US should, in theory, seem a world away for most financial services professionals locally.

Unfortunately, the international problems are starting to hit home.

Recruitment in Ireland's financial services industry is in the unfortunate position of just starting to show signs of recovery when a fresh international crises is looming.

So far, we're told, most international firms in the IFSC have so-far shied away from cutting their staff locally, despite redundancies elsewhere in the world. This doesn't mean Ireland is entirely sheltered, however.

After the global redundancy announcements in August, many financial services organisations had "knee-jerk" reactions, suggests Karen O'Flaherty, chief operations officer at Morgan McKinley.

"With four months still to go in 2011 and a real lack of clarity on how the rest of the year will play out, some financial institutions withdrew or froze new roles, or adjusted their strategies to focus on more flexible temporary and contract positions," she says.

This is slightly disconcerting. Most financial institutions in Ireland were still being fairly cautious on recruitment anyway, but the machinations in the eurozone and troubles within banks elsewhere in the world has led them to take the default position first seen in late 2008 - hiring freezes.

Then there's the prospect of a fresh wave of redundancies. It's not just the international financial services organisations with large back office operations in Ireland that could need to pare back, there's also the suggestion that local stockbroking firms are feeling the pain.

In another worrying echo of late 2008, stockbrokers have been the first to start trimming staff in the face of global troubles. So far it's relatively light - Bloxham Stockbrokers has laid off 7 employees (or 8% of its headcount) - but it's an indication that the sector is suffering.