Overall, while most investment banks have pared back headcount in the latter part of this year, IT in finance recruitment has proven relatively resilient. Cracks have appeared in some areas, however, while others remain bulletproof.

Here is our considered opinion on the highs and lows for the sector throughout 2011.

2011 was a good year for:

1) Information security professionals

This year, there have been numerous examples of high-profile and embarrassing data leaks or breaches of technology controls: the LSE's two-hour crash that was first thought to be a disgruntled employee exacting revenge; increased instances of data theft; hacking attacks at Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and the IMF and instances of technologists stealing code from their ex-employers.

Information security, therefore, has quickly risen to the top of the agenda for many financial services firms. Retail banks, with their vast swathes of customer information, remain the biggest recruiters in this area, but other firms in the sector have been building their information security teams.

Salaries have shot up – by £25k at the senior end – and even now there remains an appetite to hire information security professionals.

2) Technologists able to put together apps for tablets and smartphones

Financial services firms have seldom been quick to embrace new technology that goes out into the public sphere, largely because of the security and compliance maze they're forced to navigate. In 2011, however, both retail and investment banks have embraced the need to develop apps for iPhones, iPads and other smartphone and tablets on the market.

Deutsche Bank launched a primes services app in January, and expanded into research, stock trading, post trade and other services, while the likes of BarCap, Citigroup, Credit Suisse and Nomura have all rolled out iPad apps.

Not surprisingly, this hastranslated into recruitment, with firms looking to hire both project managers and programmers for their mobile application development teams.

3) The appeal of hedge funds to technologists

Hedge funds have been increasing their IT spend this year, and to ensure that they can gain a competitive edge, they've increasingly been building their own systems in-house. Recent research by Citi Prime Finance suggested that hedge funds have shelled out $2bn on technology this year.

Even recently, hedge funds have continued to recruit technologists as they make investments into algorithmic trading systems as well as risk, collateral management and data management systems. Hedge fund IT pay is generally on a par with that of investment banks, but the greater bonus potential and an opportunity to be closer to the business has prompted more technologists to make the switch this year.

However, don't assume the transition is easy. For many roles related to the development of real time trading applications, hedge funds have looked to cheaper talent outside the financial sector.

And 2011 was a bad year for:

1) Contractors

At the beginning of 2011, it looked like contracting was the place to be for financial technologists. Even junior employees were taking the contract route to secure pay rises, and – with headcount relatively restricted – seemingly permanent IT roles within investment banks were transforming into contract positions.

By now, most contractors will be in the middle of an enforced two-week holiday, which is part of the ongoing squeeze by banks. Rates have declined more or less universally by 10-15% in a take-it-or-leave-it scenario last seen towards the end of 2008 and new opportunities have declined to the extent that most people are staying put.

2)  Job security generally

As we've mentioned, IT has proved relatively resilient, but this doesn’t mean that it's escaped job cuts entirely. As early as June, UBS unveiled plans to axe 500 technology employees and more were expected to follow.

"Banks are making their IT functions more efficient. While this means a lot people will lose their jobs, the proportion of total headcount reduction – at an average of around 10% – will be smaller than other areas of the business,” Ralph Silva, an analyst at research firm SRN, told us at the time.

The authoritative report into the future of investment banking released by Morgan Stanley and Oliver Wyman predicted a total of 5,000-7,000 redundancies in IT. Compared to the total number of jobs lost this year in European banks alone (estimated at 200,000), this seems small, but it's certainly significant enough.

3) Keeping technology roles in the UK

Strategy days, high profile strategy days that invariably mean redundancy announcements, have been something of a theme this year. In May, HSBC was among the first to unveil how it was going to change over the next three years. Among the proposals, were plans to save $175m by offshoring IT functions.

So far, so normal. The unusual element of this, however, was that it was intending to offshore 40% of its IT staff related to its global banking and markets division. This follows on from BarCap's decision to create 500 tech jobs related to the development of front office trading systems in the Ukraine last year.

Unfortunately, this trend looks like continuing.