It’s been a turbulent 12 months for the finance sector. Head counts were slashed, budgets were tightened and finding a job is still pretty tough. But will the financial year beginning on April 6 bring new opportunities?

The good

Roles in risk and regulation are set to be the way of the future. As financial markets across the world plummeted, the UK’s FSA (Financial Services Authority) launched a slew of new regulations that will affect companies across the banking industry.

“This has generated a steady demand for technical and risk professionals, in particular for statisticians, pricing analysts, actuaries and risk managers,” says Michael Stefan, manager at Hays Financial Services.

Joanna Fagbadegun of Robert Walters says business analysts “who can … implement these new measures in line with the FSA guidelines”, internal audit controls and credit and market risk roles are the ones that will flourish.

“There is also steady demand for pensions and employee benefits professionals, but UK experience is often a prerequisite for these markets,” Stefan adds.

The pay

Salaries for permanent risk jobs are likely to stay constant and potentially go up, while contract risk roles have already seen a slight increase since the beginning of the calendar year, Fagbadegun says.

Meanwhile, salaries for more traditional finance roles – both contract and permanent – are likely to stay the same or possibly go down slightly.

The ugly

Fagbadegun says newly qualified chartered accountants are some of the hardest candidates to place at the moment. Low-level work such as account payable roles is an option to keep in mind until things start to pick up again.

» See tntjobs.co.uk or contact Robert Walters

(020 7379 3333) or Hays GlobaLink (0800 716026