These are the sorts of jobs you might get before Christmas

There's never much hiring at this time of the year, but there is some. When probed, recruiters will even reveal roles their clients would like to fill in the next four weeks. These roles won't pay guarantees and they're mostly in the middle office, but they do exist.

If you want a new job before Christmas, this is where assorted recruiters say banks are still hiring:

1) Risk

There aren't many urgent open roles in risk, but there are some. Nedbank is rumoured to want a market risk person ASAP; so is Standard Bank.

Priya Mariannie, a senior risk consultant at recruitment firm PSD Group, says they have some credit risk and operational risk roles that banks would like to fill urgently. "They will take a decision on hiring now, but they will probably wait for people to join in March after bonuses have been paid," she says.

2) Change and transformation

"There's been a noticeable slowdown and we're much quieter than last year, but there are still some roles in change and transformation," says Jonathan Nicholson, managing director of recruitment firm Astbury Marsden.

3) Algo trading developers

Nicholson says they also have roles for senior developers and architectural leads in algo trading technology which banks would like to fill this year. "They're sporadic. It's usually a business critical opportunity," he says.

4) Internal audit and regulatory reporting

Tom Stoddart, head of the banking permanent division at recruitment firm Eximius, says they've got around 6 regulatory reporting and 4 internal audit roles which banks would like to fill before year end. "The primary driver is the world of regulation in which we live," he says.

5) Recruitment

As we mentioned last week, some headhunters and recruiters are taking this opportunity to hire. Also among them is The Cornell Partnership, which recently hired a former HSBC banker and is interested in hiring additional consultants with a banking background.

6) Trading jobs at unheard of hedge funds

Nicholson says there are front office jobs out there, but they're with relatively obscure employers. "We have a small number of roles with hedge funds, but they're not with names that would be instantly recognisable," he says.

7) Analyst and associate jobs in boutiques

Logan Naidu, Partner at The Cornell Partnership, says whilst they have many mandates and some window-shopping, they have four or five M&A analyst and associate roles at boutiques, which they're looking to fill by the end of the year. "If you've been let go by a big bank, there are

a handful of firms that will move to hire you reasonably quickly," he says.