Executive recruitment 'close' to pre-pandemic levels

Thursday 06 May 2021

Local consultants have said high numbers of vacancies for key financial roles show a skill gap for Jersey finance recruitment.

Recruitment consultancy firm, Kendrick Rose, say they are seeing close to as many vacancies for top and mid-level roles in finance as before the pandemic.

Citing figures from a Labour Market Report from Statistics Jersey, they say there has been an 2.2% employment drop between December 2019 to December 2020. Financial services and legal jobs are also down 190 on the same period in the previous year. 

They said they found 70 more people employed in financial services and legal since June 2020 – however, they added finance firms still have many key roles they are struggling to fill. 

Equally, they pointed to Statistic Jersey’s Business Tendency Survey showed ‘moderately positive’ indications for future employment, with 32% of companies expecting to take on more staff, and 37% for financial services.

Shelley Kendrick, Kendrick Rose’s Managing Director said: “We are seeing extraordinarily strong demand from employers wanting to hire staff for mid-level trust or fund administration roles, and for Compliance roles at all levels.  

“Finding the right talent in these areas is a huge challenge for businesses and highlights a skills gap in the Island. 

“There are businesses here with up to 40 vacancies now who are struggling to recruit people with the right skills locally. As an Island, if we can’t address this skills gap, firms will have to think how to service the work they need and may end up looking off-Island.”

Ms. Kendrick added: “Now that business has returned to normal for many firms after the pandemic, we are seeing a recruitment gap. There may still be higher levels of unemployment, and fewer jobs overall than before the pandemic, but that is not what we are seeing for financial services.

“If we want this work to be done by local people, we need to get people back to the Island after university and give them the right training for these key roles. But, most importantly, for the people thinking about changing careers now, we need to think creatively about how we can help them upskill.”