Finance sector jobs among most in-demand

The finance and accounting sector is one where recruitment is still occurring at a rapid rate, according to a new survey.

A new survey on the UK jobs market has shown that the financial sector remains one of the busiest recruiters.

The Recruitment and Employers' Confederation (REC) / KPMG report on jobs for November revealed that overall demand for staff continued to grow across the economy, albeit at a slower rate than for some time. Historically, however, this remains at an elevated level.

Overall, the financial and accountancy sector saw the second highest level of demand for new permanent staff, with only engineering ahead. However, the financial sector trailed areas like IT and blue collar jobs for temporary recruitment.

The continued high level of demand for financial sector jobs comes despite some of the institutions that have struggled in recent years rationalising by closing branches and reducing headcounts.

As a result, there is a danger of a shortage of staff, not least because many experienced staff who have left one financial sector institution will soon be snapped up by others, while some may seek employment in a different part of the economy, with the general economic growth and improvement in the labour market creating many opportunities to do this.

For recruiters, it may therefore pay to have an enhanced strategy to ensure the best talent can be snapped up, as the ongoing growth of UK employment means the availability of people with the requisite skills is sure to shrink.

A number of strategies can be developed to help with this. These include offering more enticing pay and reward packages, recruiting talent from overseas or casting the net wider by bringing in people with the right transferrable skills from other sectors.

Discussing the issues of pay and reward highlighted by the November survey, REC chief executive Kevin Green said: "Over a quarter of recruiters say that starting salaries for equivalent jobs are getting better by the month, driven by competition between employers for quality candidates."

So, while the rise in recruitment has slowed, it is still going fast enough for recruiters to need to be on their toes.