The financial services industry was smacked hard by the recession, but it was not a knockout.
“In the last 30 to 45 says I have definitely been seeing more job offers on the accounting side across the board, from staff accountants to credit collections,” said Richard Greenwald, president of White Plains-based staffing firm The Concorde Group. “That is typically the first area where companies slash, and now that things are supposedly picking up a little bit, companies need to have somebody to count the money.”
Jason Witty, a regional manager at Robert Half International in Stamford, Conn., said the region is littered with financial companies from hedge funds to investment management firms, so resurgence will have great benefits to the area.
“Lower Fairfield County is closely tied to financial services, not only because that industry is such a large part of the area but it ties into so many sub-industries because they”™re also spending money in the economy locally,” Witty said. “There was such a boom in the financial services sector from the 2005 to 2007 years. A lot of the smaller companies may have fallen off, but there seems to be more money coming into the hedge fund world.”
As far as available positions, “we are seeing a steady demand for financial analysts and staff accountants,” Witty said.
“Accounting and finance people help companies run leaner,” Witty said. “Companies still have to do their books whether they”™re in the black or in the red.”
Both Greenwald and Witty have seen an increase in demand for temporary employees, with accountants being the most sought-after positions from employers.
“It is my thought process that people will look to hire temporary or temp-to-permanent employees before they increase permanent head count,” Greenwald said. “It gives the company more flexibility and a more qualified candidate pool than it has been in years. From the candidate”™s standpoint, you never know what will come out of a temp assignment; sometimes it leads to a permanent job.”
Witty said temporary hiring builds up first and full-time hiring will follow.
“Companies”™ confidence is starting to come back,” Witty said. “A lot of companies cut quickly and deeply into their staff at the beginning of this recession. When business starts to pick back up, companies will typically start bringing on temp staff to help with the workload and as confidence builds start hiring additional head count.”
Greenwald said confidence is key when it comes to economic recovery.
“It”™s all about the confidence factor,” Greenwald said. “If things stay the same and do not go backwards, we will incrementally creep out of this recession. It”™s going to take time. We haven”™t seen anything like this in our lifetime and people are just trying to figure out what to do and readjust.”
Witty said the staffing industry can be a good barometer of the economic outlook.
“It”™s still very early to tell, but it is feeling better than it has been,” Witty said.
