Fears over increasingly aggressive fines from the FSA means that 14% of all new jobs created in the City last month were in compliance, control and risk says financial services recruitment firm Astbury Marsden.
The recruitment house says that demand for compliance staff is keeping the City jobs market buoyant, with more than 700 of the 5,231 new jobs created in October requiring skills in auditing,policing and reporting.
Overall the number of new City jobs created in financial services increased by just one per cent on the 5157 recorded in September.
Says Astbury Marsden COO Mark Cameron: "As with the usual seasonal trend we are seeing a slowdown in the hiring of front office staff like traders. In clear contrast to that, the hiring of back and middle office staff has continued to power ahead and most of these are directly related to compliance, product control, regulatory and liquidity reporting roles."
The FSA handed down a record £33.1m in fines last year (to March 31 2010), up 21% on the previous year's record-breaking £27.3m.
Cameron says that his firm had expected the surge in demand for governance roles to have ended by now but this boom is now expected to enter its third year: "While these roles undoubtedly add value, if you asked our clients they would say they already have too many staff paid too much to check boxes but the regulatory burden just keeps getting heavier."