Job vacancy numbers within the financial services sector are expected to fall for the rest of this year across England and Wales, according to new research from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), the trade association for the professional recruitment sector.
The data, provided by business intelligence specialist Vacancysoft, revealed that vacancy numbers within commercial banking, insurance, fintech and IT were all set to fall this year, highlighting worsening economic conditions following a fairly positive 2022.
While commercial banking saw a 38.5% year-on-year rise in vacancy numbers in 2022, the sector’s recruitment volumes are forecast to fall by 26.5% in 2023, while jobs within fintech are set to drop sharply by 53.4%. In addition, while IT professionals have been the most in-demand of any profession within the finance sector in the first four months of 2023, job vacancy numbers have still declined by 32.3% when compared to the same point in 2022. Professionals in insurance – who saw a 48.2% rise in demand in 2022, are also expected to be less sought after this year with a decrease of 5.8% forecast. Compliance appears to be the only field within the finance sector where job numbers are expected to increase, perhaps pointing to a more complex regulatory environment for organisations operating in this field.
A comparison of employers within financial services in 2022 revealed the dominance of Barclays, which saw an increase of 148% in vacancy numbers. Insurance firm AXA also saw impressive growth with a 92.2% rise in roles when compared to data from 2021. However, it could be a more challenging year for the likes of Citi and Santander which are expected to post respective falls of 70.5% and 72.5% by the end of the year.
Ann Swain, Global CEO at APSCo, said
While the drop in financial job vacancy numbers is disappointing, it’s not unexpected and highlights the difficult market conditions in which many firms are now operating. Of course, this data is impacted by the relative boom period experienced in 2022 which saw vacancy numbers climb significantly after the pandemic as organisations began to once again boost the size of their workforces, however, the drop-off predicted for this year suggests that period is now over.
The increasing demand for compliance specialists highlights the challenging regulatory landscape that many are now facing and we anticipate seeing further growth in this field over the coming months. Interestingly, the drop in vacancy numbers appears to have impacted London more than other regions with a year-on-year fall in the capital of 38.4% compared to the drop in hiring volumes of 26.4% across the rest of England and Wales.
