A new survey shows that Australia’s financial recruitment market seems to be stabilising, but don’t expect any real growth until next year. Almost nine out of 10 employers (88%) think financial services and accountancy hiring will start to rebound before mid 2010, according to the study from recruitment firm Morgan McKinley.

During 2009, 64% of hiring managers expect their firm’s recruitment activity to at least remain at current levels (59%) or increase (5%), statistics which suggests that the employment market might be close to bottoming out.

These cautiously optimistic results were gathered in mid-March from 110 HR and hiring managers working in Sydney financial institutions (and also in commercial organisations which hire finance professionals).

Louise Langridge, joint managing director of Morgan McKinley Sydney, warns that any rebound will be long and slow. “Given that there is still a fair amount of uncertainty within the financial markets, it's difficult to predict just how significant a rebound in recruitment activity will be. If hiring levels start to increase throughout the second half of 2009 and into 2010, it's likely to be a steady rise over several months, rather than an overnight surge,” says Langridge.

Other recruiters offer a similar, slow-moving view of the employment market in the next 12 months. “I would expect hiring to remain steady for the remainder of this year. I don’t believe we will see incremental increases in hiring until at least Q2 2010,” says Trevor Bradley, divisional manager, banking and financial services, Chandler Macleod Group.

Brad Shotland, associate director, financial services at Michael Page International, adds: “We have seen market sentiment improve after initiatives like the federal government’s deposit guarantee. This will flow into increased hiring activity over the next year as the financial services sector begins to replenish staff levels from a very low base. Even with signs of improvement, it will still be a subdued market in comparison to previous years.”

About two thirds of survey respondents expect salaries to remain steady this year, despite increased competition in the market for fewer roles.

Morgan McKinley’s Langridge explains: “Regardless of what is happening in the economy, organisations will always have some demand for strong finance professionals…In order to entice the strongest professionals to move jobs, prospective employers not only need to convince these individuals that the role is business critical and offers good career potential, but also meet their salary expectations.”

And despite thousands of recent redundancies in the Australian finance sector, employers aren’t unanimously saying that recruitment has become simple for them. While 59% of respondents think it’s easier to source the right candidates compared to a year ago, a significant minority (41%) believe it’s just as difficult.

“Despite an increase in available talent in the market, very strong candidates and those with niche skill sets can still be difficult to find. This is due to a combination of factors such as organisations working hard to retain these types of individuals, as well as many financial services and accountancy professionals still being cautious about voluntarily entering the jobs market,” says Langridge.

Bradley adds: “The task of finding quality candidates can be difficult irrespective of market conditions. At present it is more time consuming to identify the quality candidates as there are simply more candidates actively seeking opportunities in the market.”