Career Advice & News Center

Intuitively, one would expect job seekers in the financial services sector to be acutely aware of the challenges of finding work during the recession, by virtue of their training. If the attitudes of this class of professionals have any bearing on the future of the job market, one may expect employment in the financial field to begin gaining momentum.

According to a survey of job-seeking finance professionals administered by the financial industry recruiter OneWire.com, approximately 79 percent of unemployed finance specialists concede that their job search is taking longer than they expected, but almost two thirds are confident that they will find employment in the next six months.

Despite an unemployment rate of 10 percent by the end of November, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the pool of finance professionals surveyed retained optimism about several aspects of their professional future.

The survey found that 58 percent of the job seekers expect their total compensation at their next position to be the same as or higher than their most recent post. However, a total of 57 percent said they were willing to accept a job that pays less than their prior finance position.

Skiddy von Stade, chairman of OneWire.com, said that since the company recorded the results of a similar survey six months ago, "there has been a steady uptick in hiring activity and we remain cautiously optimistic that this trend will continue through 2010."

He added that the fields likely to experience the largest hiring increase were restructuring, corporate finance, asset management, capital markets, compliance as well as mergers and acquisitions.

"There are absolutely jobs available for qualified seekers who can stand out from the crowd," von Stade concluded.