Credit strategists are enjoying the limelight as investors elicit their opinions on the credit squeeze. Shame their job prospects aren’t as bright.

Andrew Price, director of banking at executive search firm PSD Group, says demand for credit strategists in Asia isn’t exactly booming, but recent market volatility has seen their skills very much in demand.

The Royal Bank of Scotland (for one) is hiring, having recently appointed Scott Wilson, former UBS head of Asia Pacific credit research, to head up its own credit research function. Wilson joins the bank’s operations in Singapore, leading a team of thee credit analysts based there and Hong Kong.

However, John Jessen, partner at headhunter Smith Jessen, says turmoil in the credit space is already affecting current hiring initiatives: “Despite banks having earned enormous amounts in the CDO and CDS space in recent years, we are seeing hiring freezes in the credit space – and if any fat is to be trimmed in 2008, it will be here.”

But he says Asia will probably be less affected by a slowdown in the US sub-prime market, thanks to strong economic growth and fundamentals.

Pay for credit strategists can vary broadly. Price says there are young credit analysts in Singapore earning S$100k per annum, but a head of desk or credit strategist, for example, may earn US$500k. Jessen adds that credit researchers are often sourced from the larger ratings agencies, where salaries are substantially lower than at international investment banks.