In a tentative sign of economic recovery, demand for permanent IT staff at financial services firms has started to outstrip the call for contractors in the early months of 2010, according to recruitment outfit McGregor Boyall.
The firm claims its financial services IT hiring index, which tracks the number of vacancies received from a constant range of 16 organisations, shows that while availability of contract roles outpaced permanent hiring requirements for much of 2009, this has now been reversed.
Laurie Boyall, MD, McGregor Boyall, says: "The very sharp increase in the availability of permanent roles which is now outpacing contract requirements does seem to suggest an increasing level of confidence in the market".
When it comes to types of roles, a massive 42% of vacancies have been for developers, with 16% of positions calling for business analysts during the first quarter. The most in-demand product area, with 19% of vacancies, is derivatives, followed by FX on 14% and risk at 13%.
Says Boyall: "We saw a steady increase in hiring requirements from the beginning of 2009 but this upward trend has accelerated significantly during the first two months of 2010. It is perhaps too early to tell whether this trend is anything more than a normal New Year spike but the increase is certainly more significant than anything we have seen in the last two years."