Two words can be used to largely sum up the financial services jobs market in Ireland this year – hiring freeze. While it’s true that the vast majority of sectors suffered, some managed to fare well in the face of adversity.

2009 has been a good year for…

Insurance:

The number of new jobs created might not be astronomical, but the fact that Ireland has continued to attract new insurance entrants to its shores as well as existing players expanding shouldn’t be ignored.

Insurance and re-insurance firms have been recruiting for actuarial, underwriting, product development, risk management, payment protection roles within life and non-life areas throughout 2009.

Within the last year , Beazley Group, Max Europe, RSA, Everest Reinsurance and Willis have kick-started Irish operations, while Halifax Insurance, Canada Life, Axa and Axis have all added to their teams.

Fixed income:

Looking at the bare statistics, it’s easy to see why more firms in Ireland are looking to recruit fixed income professionals. To October 2009, the Irish government had raised €23bn in syndicated bond issuance – more than double that in 2008. Corporate bond issuance in Europe as also surged this year.

“The volumes of both government and corporate bond issuance has created a huge amount of tradable debt,” says Liam Clarke, director of institutional bonds at Dolmen Securities in Dublin. “Stockbrokers have therefore been adding to their fixed income desks.”

As well as Dolmen, Bloxham, Davy, Merrion Capital and NCB Stockbrokers have all added to their ranks in this area, and REIT Capital is also looking to recruit a fixed income specialist.

Risk managers:

Think that the large domestic banks aren’t hiring? They are – they want to take on experienced credit risk professionals to manage the vast reserves of distressed assets, and for the management of work-outs. However, a number of other firms are vying for risk management expertise.

The story of risk managers’ increased profile, not just in Ireland but elsewhere, is not a new one, but it does continue to defy the downturn. Banks, capital markets, trading, insurance and reinsurance firms are all competing for operational and credit risk specialists in Ireland.

However, because of the increased responsibility, only experienced risk managers are able to secure these positions – firms are asking for a minimum of seven years’ experience.

And a bad year for…

Fund administrators:

There are some tentative signs that Ireland’s fund administrators are beginning to hire once again, but it’s still been a bad year. Assets under administration shrunk to €1,208bn (as at Q2 2009), compared to €1,658bn at the same period last year.

Citco and State Street were among the firms to announce redundancies this year, while other firms are believed to have quietly trimmed their ranks.

The majority of recent hires, with the exception of the odd fund accountant, trustee officer or custody administrator, have been on a short-term contract basis.

This is a long way from the dizzying levels of recruitment in Ireland’s fund administration sector up until mid-2008.

Graduates:

Ireland’s large domestic banks cancelled their graduate intake last year, so it’s no surprise – as their situation soured further in 2009 – that junior recruitment has continued to suffer.

Bank of Ireland, AIB and Anglo Irish have all paused their intake for this year, and fund administrators – such massive recruiters of graduates previously – have also scaled back. Not surprisingly, Irish grads are looking for overseas opportunities.

“The domestic market is pretty much closed for recruitment and that is reflective of the situation affecting the banking sector in Ireland currently,” says Sean Gannon, director and careers advisor at Trinity College, Dublin.

Commercial banking:

In August, Ulster Bank revealed it was cutting 250 jobs within its commercial lending division, with the bulk of them affecting the Republic of Ireland. Since then, Bank of Ireland and Anglo Irish have all reduced their numbers within their corporate divisions.

Of those that haven’t left for pastures new, a large number have been redeployed internally – either to establish project management teams to plan and prepare of the transfer of assets into Nama in anticipation of the legislation being passed, or into roles to leverage their contacts to work-out existing loans rather than bring in new business.

Some firms have vacancies, but sadly they don’t want experience of either property or construction – the most badly affected areas. Anyway you look at it, 2009 has not been great for commercial bankers…