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Wall Street Woes: Hiring Demand Starts to Fall

By Abby Lombardi on October 8, 2012 in Business/Finance.

There have been recent reports that many of Wall Street's biggest banks and investment companies will be cutting jobs in the coming months. Even though the BLS reported job gains in the financial services sector during September, the banking industry still faces tough times. We wanted to see what recent demand has been like in New York's financial services sector. Are banks still hiring and what are they looking for?

As it turns out, hiring in the first part of the year was looking strong. The number of available job ads being posted online grew each month until May. Since then, demand in the financial services sector in New York City began to decline. In September, there were a total of 13,000 jobs available online, a 2% decline from the same time last year.

Hiring Demand on Wall Street – 4 Year Trend in the Financial Services Sector in New York City

Hiring Demand on Wall Street

Source: WANTED Analytics

You would probably expect a lot of finance related jobs to be the most in-demand in this area and they are dominant in the below list of most advertised occupations last month. However, marketing, technology, and administrative or support functions are also highly advertised. Of these occupations, Insurance Sales Agents grew the most – up 60% in September 2012 compared to September 2011.

  1. Financial Managers, Branch or Department
  2. Tellers
  3. Sales Agents, Financial Servives
  4. Load Officers
  5. Insurance Sales Agents
  6. Financial Analysts
  7. Marketing Managers
  8. Management Analysts
  9. Computer Systems Analysts
  10. Customer Service Representatives

We also looked at the types of tools, technologies, and skills that are most commonly required in financial services jobs located in New York. Many of these are not surprising. However, we noticed that there are 2 technology skills – Java and SQL. These appear before other more common financial related skills, like portfolio management or financial planning.

  1. Risk Management
  2. Project Management
  3. Microsoft PowerPoint
  4. Microsoft Office
  5. Time management
  6. Sales experience
  7. Product development/management
  8. Oracle Java
  9. Structured query language (SQL)
  10. Self starting

Find out how hiring in the financial services sector of your city compares to Wall Street with the Hiring Scale. Tell us where the position is located and what specific job or skills you are recruiting for and we'll show you how hard-to-fill that position is, average salary information, and who you are competing with for talent.

Already an Analytics user? Log in, search for the "Finance and Insurance" industry, and add your city or other job requirements!

3 Things to Know About Recruiting on Wall Street

By Abby Lombardi on July 16, 2012 in Accounting/Finance, Finance - XLF.

While international financial markets may be struggling, jobs on Wall Street have been fairly steady. In June, more than 14,000 jobs in New York's financial services industry were posted online. Although it is a slight decline from May's 4-year record high, this still represents a 1.2% increase over hiring demand during June of 2011. We thought it might be interesting to look at 3 things that Recruiters and hiring managers should know about recruiting on Wall Street.

Think traders are in demand?

Contrary to what you may think about Wall Street, brokers, traders, and financial analysts are not the most commonly advertised jobs. Instead, the most commonly advertised job title in the financial services industry in New York is Tellers. Personal Banker and Sales Service Specialists were second and third. With Commercial Banking accounting for about 42% of all jobs on Wall Street, it's not too surprising that most of the jobs are for banking careers.

Here are the top 5 job titles being advertised on Wall Street:

  • Teller
  • Personal Banker
  • Sales Service Specialist
  • Teller I
  • Branch Manager

New York may have the highest demand for financial services jobs, but they are still easier than average to fill.

You probably aren't surprised to hear that employers in New York have the highest demand for jobs in the financial services industry. More than 14,000 job ads were posted online in this sector during June 2012. This is almost twice the volume seen by Chicago, which had the second highest demand for this industry. However, Recruiters are actually likely to find jobs on Wall Street easier to fill that on average across the US. When considering the available talent supply, our Hiring Scale™ and candidate supply data shows that New York has a large pool to source from. It's estimated that over 550,000 people work in the financial services sector in the New York metro area. This means that Recruiters will likely have a large number of candidates to source from.

Hiring Scale for Financial Services Jobs on Wall Street

Hiring Scale for Financial Services Jobs on Wall Street

Source: WANTED Analytics

Find the best places to source talent – locally and nationally

Although jobs are easier to fill in New York than on average, the difficulty of each position will vary slightly depending on the skills needed and the number of potential candidates in the local workforce that meet those requirements. If you are struggling to fill a job on Wall Street (or a finance job anywhere in the US), our Hiring Scale can show you the locations with the best conditions for finding that talent – both locally and nationally. In these areas, there is less hiring demand by employers and larger talent pools, meaning there is less competition to attract candidates and Recruiters are likely to find candidates more easily.

Near New York City, the best locations to find candidates in the financial services industry are:

  1. Utica-Rome, NY
  2. Elmira, NY
  3. Glens Falls, NY
  4. Rochester, NY
  5. Dover, DE

Across the US, the best locations for sourcing candidates in the financial services industry are:

  1. Morgantown, WV
  2. Dalton, GA
  3. Spartanburg, SC
  4. Wheeling, WV
  5. Port St. Lucie-Fort Pierce, FL

Want to see how recruiting in your city compares to New York? Check out our online Hiring Scale! Just tell us where the job is located and what position or skills you are sourcing for, and we'll show you a Hiring Scale, average salary ranges, and who you are competing with for talent.

Already an Analytics user? Log in and search for the "Finance and Insurance" industry in your city to see hiring trends and competitive information.

Is Wall Street Ready to Hire Again?

By Abby Lombardi on April 6, 2012 in Business/Finance, Finance - XLF.

Back in November, there were reports of impending layoffs on Wall Street and we saw the volume of online job ads decline and we looked at hiring demand for finance related talent. Now that the first quarter is over, we wanted to return to hiring in the Financial sector of New York City to see what demand has recently looked like. Over the past 90 days, there were about 4,400 job ads posted online by financial services employers in the New York metro area. This represents a 16% increase compared to the same time period last year. Hiring peaked early, when more than 2,000 job ads were posted online during January, a new 4-year high seen by this sector.

Hiring Demand by Financial Services Companies in New York City

Hiring Demand by Wall Street Employers

Source: WANTED Analytics

The 10 most commonly advertised jobs within the financial services sector are below. Sales agents of financial services were the most demanded with more than 1,000 job ads in the past 90 days. As we are in the height of tax season, it isn't too surprising to see Accountants on this list with a higher volume of ads than last year. Of the below 10 jobs, Loan Officers experienced the greatest year-over-year increases, up more than 59% compared to the same 90-day period in 2011. 3 occupations (Financial Analysts, Auditors, and Sales Agents of Securities and Commodities) saw declines in demand versus 2011.

Occupations with Most Job Ads in New York City's Financial Sector

Jobs on Wall Street with Most Hiring Demand

Source: WANTED Analytics

In addition, we wanted to look at some of the tools, technologies, and certifications that financial service companies most commonly require of potential candidates.  The 10 most demanded skills required on Wall Street are:

  1. Microsoft Office
  2. Microsoft PowerPoint
  3. Microsoft Excel
  4. Portfolio Management
  5. Microsoft Word
  6. Internal Audit
  7. Financial modeling
  8. Asset allocation
  9. Loan Origination Software
  10. Microsoft Access

The 5 certifications that are most often required of potential candidates include:

  1. Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
  2. Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
  3. General Securities Representative Exam (Series 7)
  4. Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
  5. Certified Internal Auditor (CIA)

Find out how easy or hard these jobs and skills are to recruit in your area with our free, online Hiring Scale™. Just tell us what position or skill set you are looking for and the location of the job opening, and we'll show you the Hiring Scale, average salary information, who your competition for talent is, and where you can find candidates.

Financial Regulations Bring New Challenges: Hiring Compliance Officers

By Abby Lombardi on March 26, 2012 in Business/Finance, Management/Executive.

A recent article on Fortune looked at hiring for Compliance Officers in the wake of changing regulations, including Dodd-Frank and pending Volcker legislations. We thought we would look at the trend of job postings, skills required, and how hard-to-fill these job openings are.

In the past 60 days, more than 300 financial services firms have posted a total of 1,200 job ads for Compliance Officers across the US. This is a 49% increase compared to the same 60-day period in 2011. With the increasing regulations affecting banks and other financial services companies, seeing this increase in specialized hiring is not too much of a surprise.

Hiring Demand for Compliance Officers – 4 Year Hiring Trend

Hiring Demand for Compliance OfficersSource: WANTED Analytics

In addition, it may not be too surprising that New York, Dallas, and Chicago lead the US in hiring demand for these professionals. Recruiters in these 3 areas are likely to see challenges with sourcing enough candidates to fill job openings and will compete heavily for qualified talent. Our Hiring Scale™ shows that employers in New York City are seeing some of the most difficulties and longest time-to-fill. Here, job ads stay online for more than 6.5 weeks, about 1 week longer than average.

Hiring Scale for Compliance Officers – New York, NY (Hard-to-Fill)

Hiring Scale for Compliance Officers in New York

Source: WANTED Analytics

Some of the commonly required skills listed in online job ads for Compliance Officers include:

  • Microsoft Office
  • Compliance testing
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Internal audit
  • Microsoft word
  • Audit management
  • Portfolio management
  • Transaction processing
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft SharePoint
  • Legal research

Some of the most demanded certifications for these candidates include:

  • Certified Public Accountant (CPA)
  • Certified Internal Auditor (CIA)
  • Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE)
  • Chartered Wealth Manager
  • Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
  • Juris Doctorate Degree

Are you recruiting for Compliance Officers? Try our online Hiring Scale™ to see how easy- or hard-to-fill these jobs will be in your area, average salary information, who you are competing with for talent, and where to find hidden candidates.

Hiring Computer Programmers Part 2 – Recruiting "Nice to Have" Skills

By Abby Lombardi on January 17, 2012 in Computer/Math/IT, Finance - XLF.

Yesterday, we looked at recruiting "must have" skills for Computer Programmers by reviewing candidate supply from a real job opening currently being advertised. Today, we'll use the same job ad to look at recruiting for some "nice to have" skill sets (in comparison to those that are required) and how conditions change. Often, job ads list required qualifications and additional skills that hiring managers would prefer candidates to have. We'll keep the same required skills (Oracle, VBA, and Sybase programming experience with background in the financial services industry), but add additional requirements.

Here's the job ad we used as an example:

Computer Programmer in Financial Services Industry

The job lists SharePoint and Java development skills as preferred skills. By adding these 2 common tech skills, our candidate supply reduces from 317 (in yesterday's post) to an estimated 8 potential candidates that would meet all our job requirements. After reviewing this information, Recruiters and hiring managers can discuss realistic expectations on finding these additional skills. You may decide that on-the-job training is a better option, since this combination of skills is extremely rare.

Candidate Supply of Computer Programmers with Java and Sharepoint

Source: WANTED Analytics

Another way that we can change our search criteria is by industry. This job ad requests candidates with experience in financial markets. However, by opening up our industry selections, we may find additional candidates. Even after keeping Java and SharePoint as required skills, we see that the number of potential candidates – across all industries – increases to 159. The first source of candidates for many companies is their industry competition. But, as you can see, this can often limit your candidate pool.

Candidate Supply of Computer Programmers with Required Skills across all Industries

Candidate Supply of Computer Programmers across all Industries

Source: WANTED Analytics

By discussing the estimated number of candidates for each scenario with the hiring manager, an effective recruiting strategy can be developed. You may determine that these are required skills and can't be compromised and, in that case, you can prepare the hiring manager for longer recruitment times or suggest ways to attract candidates from outside the NY metro area.

Do you know which skill combinations will be difficult to recruit? Start your free trial of WANTED Analytics™ to find out! Search by skills, location, industry, job function, and occupation to determine recruiting conditions, average salary information, and how much competition there is.

Hiring Declines in New York's Financial Sector as Job Losses Begin

By Abby Lombardi on November 21, 2011 in Business/Finance.

Over the past month, there have been several forecasts that the New York financial sector may lose up to 10,000 jobs by the end of 2012 and reports were released on Friday of layoffs at many major banks. We took a look at hiring demand over the past 30 days to see what it looks like now. In the last 30 days, about 3,100 total job ads were posted online within the financial services sector in the New York metro area. Of these job ads, just over 1,000 were for finance-related occupations, including Commodities and Securities Traders, Financial Analysts, Brokers, and Sales Agents of Financial Services – representing about one-third of all ads placed for the industry.  This not only represents a 2% year-over-year decline in demand, but also a decline from earlier in the year when there were more than 1,600 job ads posted during April and May. This is also significantly lower than pre-recession hiring demand when there were well over 2,400 job ads in October 2007.

Hiring Demand for Finance Professionals in New York's Financial Services Sector

Hiring Demand in the Financial Services Sector of New York

Source: WANTED Analytics

There were 200 employers in the New York area that advertised job openings in October. Companies that posted the most ads were Citigroup, Bank of America (and Merrill Lynch), Chase, Wells Fargo, Metlife, AIG, and Citizens Financial Group.  Some of the most commonly advertised job titles for financial-related occupations include:

  1. Personal Banker
  2. Financial Advisor
  3. Sales Service Specialists
  4. Loan Officer
  5. Business Analyst
  6. Financial Analyst
  7. Relationship Banker
  8. Accountant
  9. Business Banker
  10. Credit Analyst

According to our Hiring Scale™, recruiting conditions for these jobs across the US will be moderately easy since the talent pool remains large. However, compared the the rest of the nation, Recruiters in the New York area are likely to see slightly more difficult conditions than average. This means that financial services companies in New York City may see a longer time-to-fill and cost-per-hire than in other locations. On average, job ads across the US remain online for about 5.8 weeks, while job ads in New York are listed for about 6.5 weeks. Our Hiring Scale also showed that the easiest locations to recruit for these jobs near New York are Utica-Rome, Syracuse, and Albany (New York).

Hiring Scale for Finance Professionals in New York's Financial Services Sector

Hiring Scale for Financial Jobs in New York Metro Area

Source: WANTED Analytics

Are you recruiting within the financial services sector? Sign up for a free trial of WANTED Analytics™ to see how recruiting conditions compare in your area and find hidden candidate pools for hard-to-fill jobs.

Hiring in Financial Services Sector Down 22% in Last 30 Days

By Abby Lombardi on October 12, 2011 in Business/Finance.

After a promising start to 2011, hiring demand in the financial services sector has declined quickly and concerns of more job losses are growing. Earlier in the year, we reported that this sector experienced 19% gains in new job ads placed online.  However, over the past 30 days, Recruiters representing this sector placed just 36,000 new online job ads – 22% fewer than the same time period in 2010. The volume of online job ads has declined significantly since pre-recession highs, when more than 86,000 job ads were placed online during August 2007. Within financial services, the greatest year-over-year decline in hiring demand was seen by Real Estate Credit (down 71%), Direct Title Insurance Carriers (down 72%), Consumer Lending (down 67%). However, not all industries have seen declines. Some of the highest year-over-year increases were seen by Open-End Investment Funds and Claims Adjusting, which have grown 110% and 96% versus 2010.

Hiring Demand in Financial Services Sector – 4 Years

Hiring Demand in Financial Services Sector

Source: WANTED Analytics

Employers with the highest volume of job ads during this 30-day period were Unitedhealth Group, Citigroup, Chase, Wells Fargo, and Aflac. 4 of these 5 companies increased year-over-year hiring demand. Only Wells Fargo placed less job ads compared to 2010. Aflac saw the highest increase, up more than 194% versus the same time last year. However, Recruiters at Unitedhealth Group placed the most ads with more than 2,800 new ads posted online in September.

Not surprisingly, Recruiters in New York placed the most ads for the financial sector with more than 2,700 new jobs posted online. This, however, is a 23% decline versus the same time last year. Other cities with high demand during September included Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles.  The most demanded occupations were Insurance Sales Agents, Financial Services Sales Agents, Financial Managers, Tellers, and Loan Officers. We also looked at average salary ranges for each of these top 5 occupations, both nationally and in New York.

Occupation Average Salary Range
New York 		Average Salary Range
National
Insurance Sales Agents $50,000 – $69,000 $41,600 – $60,000
Financial Services Sales Agents $80,000 – $110,000 $45,000 – $80,000
Financial Managers $100,000 – $125,000 $80,000 – $100,000
Tellers $25,750 – $30,000 $21,150 – $24,950
Loan Officers $75,000 – $100,000 $52,000 – $83,200

Due to low hiring demand and a sizable talent pool, Recruiters are likely to see moderately easy recruiting conditions. Although, conditions will vary by occupation and location, depending on the available candidate supply. According to the Hiring Scale™, Financial Managers are likely to be the hardest-to-fill of the highly demanded jobs with 24 potential candidates in the workforce nationwide. In New York, the talent pool is smaller than average with just 14 candidates per job opening. It is likely that Recruiters here will have a longer time-to-fill for these openings than many of their US counterparts.

Hiring Scale for Financial Managers – New York vs. National Average

hiring scale for financial managers

Source: WANTED Analytics

If you are sourcing for job openings within the Financial Services sector and want to compare recruiting conditions, try the online Hiring Scale.

New York City Hiring Demand Shows Solid Growth

By Juli Morris on May 23, 2011 in Computer/Math/IT, Management/Executive.

New York City area employers posted more than 72,900 new online job ads jobs in April, up 6.5% over April 2010. Although a drop from March levels, metro NYC hiring demand up 60% over its 4-year low in February 2009.

New York City Metro Area Hiring Demand — 4 year:

Source: WANTED Analytics

Source: WANTED Analytics™

The IT industry leads the metro area in hiring demand, with over 19,500 new job ads posted in April in Computer and Mathematical Occupations. Other high growth occupations include Market Research Analysts and Marketing Managers, both showing greater than 25% growth over April 2010.

Top 20 Occupations by Hiring Demand — New York City Metro Area — April 2011 vs 2010:

Top 20 Occupations by Hiring Demand — New York City Metro Area — April 2011 vs 2010

Source: WANTED Analytics™

The high demand for web developers is matched with a relatively small talent pool: our Candidate Supply data finds just over 13,000 potential candidates in the local market. On top of that, five of the top 10 direct employers in metro NYC are financial services firms, and all are looking for web developers. The talent pool shrinks to just over 1,000 for Web Developers with Financial industry experience, making this a hard-to-fill position compared to the national average. The Hiring Scale™ metrics for this position bears this out.

Hiring Scale for Web Developers with Financial Industry Experience:

Hiring Scale for Web Developers with Financial Industry Experience

Source: WANTED Analytics™

Top employers in the New York City metro area by hiring demand in April include CITI, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Time Warner, Citigroup, AT&T, Ernst & Young, Bank of America, IBM, and JoS. A. Bank.

Finance Down 8,800 – September 2009 BLS Preliminary Report

By Juli Morris on October 2, 2009 in BLS Nonfarm Employment, Business/Finance.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics today reported a loss of 8,800 jobs in the Finance and Insurance sector for September, following a  revised loss of 18,200 jobs reported by the BLS for August. Losses of 7,400 jobs in the Banking sector were the largest component of the overall employment decline.

Chart

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The Financial Services Hiring Demand Indicator–a measure of year-over-year change in online job advertising– rose for the fifth consecutive month, from -27 percent in August to -25 percent in September.
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FORECAST: September 2009 – Finance Down 7,700

By Charles Thibault on September 28, 2009 in BLS Nonfarm Employment, Business/Finance.

WANTED Technologies forecasts that the BLS will announce an loss of 7,700 workers in the Finance and Insurance industry in September (NAICS supersector 52). Last month, the Finance and Insurance industry lost 20,000 workers.

The number of online job ads for Financial Specialists grew by 7.0% on a seasonally adjusted basis from last month, after declining 2% in August. This improvement in Hiring Demand dampens job losses but is not strong enough to produce gains in employment.

Chart

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The Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its Preliminary August Estimate for the Finance and Insurance sector as part of its Employment Situation report on Friday, October 2, at 8:30 AM.

WANTED Technologies also forecasts employment counts within selected industry sub-groups. We forecast losses of 1,600 workers in the Credit Intermediation sector (NAICS 522), a loss of only 300 workers in the Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments sector (NAICS 523), and a loss of 6,600 workers in Insurance Carriers (NAICS 524).

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