Job offers to IT contractors into financial services doubled between April and May, according to new research, raising hopes that the worst could be over for financial services recruiters.  The research, by pre-employment firm Powercheck also found employment offers increased in insurance (+23%) and banking (+19%).

However, the research found that compared with the same month last year financial services recruitment was down across the board. Investment banks saw the largest decline with 83% fewer offers, followed by stockbrokers (-54%) and hedge funds (-56%)

Nick Walrond,  managing director of IT and business change recruiter Sanderson, told Recruiter that while there had been an improvement since the first quarter there had been no change on the permanent side.  However, he says there are some tentative signs of improvement on the contracting side though it remains less buoyant than this time last year.

“A lot of organisations are beginning to look at professional roles in the contracting space. A number of mergers and acquisitions and takeovers in that market is driving the need for business change professionals, such as project managers, and integration specialists.”

Alexandra Kelly, director at Powerchex, adds: “Most firms in the sector have an official or unofficial freeze in recruitment, however firms continue to recruit selectively. We are seeing a split in strategy amongst firms that operate within financial services. There are those companies that are not actively recruiting and only replacing people who leave critical roles, and on the other hand there are those companies who believe now is the time to position themselves to take advantage of any upturn by hand picking new staff from a large and talented pool of people.”