Ireland’s stock brokers are facing the triple whammy of redundancies, recruitment freezes and shrinking pay.

Last week Davy, the country’s largest stockbroker, announced it was making 75 redundancies, while NCB Stockbrokers recently cut 10 from its team of 180. Other major players are understood to be holding fire, but enacting recruitment freezes.

In January last year, Davy said it was aiming to double its profits within the private client business, to €100m. But with slumping equity markets, the tide has since turned and “a significant part” of the redundancies will be within this division.

The bad news for those affected is there’s not many other opportunities for them on the market.

Nicola Kavanagh, banking and finance manager at Hudson in Ireland, says: “We’ve received a lot of private client stockbroking CVs recently. Whereas 18 months ago, we would have had a number of roles for them to choose from, now we’re having to turn those types of candidates away.”

James Hayes, manager – banking and financial service at Robert Walters in Dublin, says: “Those with only 2-3 years’ experience will particularly struggle, because they are only beginning to build their private client base. The jobs that are out there will go to those able to draw on their experience and contacts, but with such a flood of individuals on to the market, even they will find it tough.”

To add salt to the wound at Davys, those staying who earn over €50k will be required to take a 5% pay cut. What’s more, the job vacancies within the sector are offering reduced salaries says Kavanagh.

“They’ve shrunk by 10-15%,” she says. “The bigger issue for these candidates is the bonus linked to performance. If they take on a new role it’ll be at least 12-18 months before they pull in earnings close to those of recent years.”