If you wanted to get hired this year, it would have helped considerably if you’d worked in FX or interest rate sales. Hiring in both areas has been brisk.

Morgan Stanley yesterday said it’s increased headcount in FX by 20% this year. And earlier this month, Brady Dougan said the bank’s interest rates business was the biggest contributor to revenues in the first half. As the slide we reproduced in today’s Lunchtime Links article shows, this was equally the case for the first nine months.

The head of one financial services search boutique says hiring has been consistently strong, and remains so, across “anything macro” [rates and FX]: “BarCap, Credit Suisse, BofA Merrill, RBS, and Deutsche are all hiring.”

Another headhunter says BNP, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are all building their FX businesses.

Earlier this month, it emerged that BofA Merrill has Vinit Sahni from Goldman’s Asian office into its London FX business, for example. “It’s indicative of the state of the market,” says the headhunter. “Given his notice period, he probably won’t have a day in the office this year, but they’ve been prepared to pay to get him on board.”

This will be the second year good year in a row for FX desks. Neil Price, Partner at FX specialist recruiter Michael Williams Associates cautions against getting too excited about hiring. “The market is much busier than it was – in the last two months a lot of banks have added to some degree, but the total number of actual hires hasn’t been huge. We will see a more consistent hiring approach at year end and Q1 2010″ he says.