Most candidates looking for work outside of the big two cities will find that Brisbane and Perth offer them similar opportunities.

The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that there are 44,700 financial services employees in Queensland and 26,500 in Western Australia. The vast majority of these people work in the state capitals. Both the Sandgropers and Banana Benders lag well behind NSW (140,000) and Victoria (86,700).

Although Brisbane employs more finance workers, the type of vacancies on offer are generally similar to Perth. Ryan Hathrill, director of Robert Walters, says the majority of roles in both centres are in relationship banking, financial planning and insurance broking.

But there are a few differences between the two cities. Commodities vacancies are in larger supply in Perth, while private banking and funds management is slightly stronger in Queensland.

“The critical mass of the Queensland Investment Corporation underpins asset management roles in Brisbane,” says Luke Heath, chief executive of Chandler Heath Executive Recruitment.

Bank of Queensland continues to be a dominant Brisbane player, and according to Goldman Sachs JBWere banking analyst Ben Koo, the firm looks likely to remain independent despite takeover rumours.

Hathrill explains Perth’s key strengths: “We have banking roles within the resources sector, and agribanking in particular is also taking off in Perth,” adds.

Brisbane and Perth bank employees enjoy similar remuneration levels to each other but the small size of the investment banking market in these second-tier financial centres means they can’t compete with Sydney and Melbourne salaries in this sector.

“There is also more competition for accounting and back-office functions, IT and HR in Sydney and Melbourne, and naturally this pushes up remuneration there,” says Hathrill.

Relationship managers in retail and commercial banking might be the exception to the rule because they can earn similar coin to their south east coast colleagues, he adds.