| IFSC jobs total reaches record high as employment hits 25,235 |
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THE NINTH annual survey of employment in IFSC companies by Finance Dublin shows that despite difficult conditions in the IFSC’s main markets last year, the pace of recovery detected in 2010 continued, and indeed accelerated, with employment numbers growing by 1.9 per cent in the year to bring the total level of employment in the sector to 25,235, a new all- time record.
The increase of 474 jobs, pushes the overall employment in the sector above 25,000, a mark which was only previously breached in 2007 (see table).
The employment figures, compiled annually by Finance Dublin, as part of the annual updating of the corporate information in the (2012) IFSC Yearbook show that employment remains robust in international financial services as the net employment growth continued against a continued background of contraction and divestment by domestic financial institutions.
The withdrawal of the ‘domestic’ banks (including overseas owned banks such as RBS, and Danske) from international financial services sees the sector now largely represented through treasury operations.
And, while banking also remained subdued, in light of the international (particularly European) banking climate
there have been many individual signs of life in the finance and asset management/banking sector.
The survey also shows overall IFSC resilience, which was all the more remarkable in 2011, as it was a year with several major business negatives, notably:
(1) It was the year after the sovereign bailout of the Irish Government by the Troika, a factor that had an inevitable impact in some areas, (particularly in the early part of the year);
(2) The IFSC’s main markets, (the EU, and the USA) have been in the relatively depressed parts of the globe, with the result that faster growth seen in Asia/Middle East/South America markets has been passing the IFSC by.
Banking/Asset Management /Finance/Treasury
Overall ‘Banking’ employment has fallen from its peak in 2007 at 11,191 to 9,791 now. This however is in stark contrast to the other two sectors in the Survey.
Investment Funds
While there have been job losses particularly in the first years of the crisis and with some migration of jobs outside of Ireland because of rising costs the sector has still created more jobs than it has cut. There are now more jobs in the funds sector than ever before, 10,905 compared to the previous peak, in 2008, of 10,651, and up by 323, or by 3.0 p.c compared with the end of 2010. Major job creators in the sector have included Hedgeserv, who have plans to create a further 300 new jobs in Ireland, on top of the 200+ employed in their Irish operations already. State Street, BNY Mellon and RBC Dexia Investor Services are also among the funds companies that have expanded their work forces while Northern Trust’s acquisition of Bank of Ireland Securities Services sees the company now emply more than 800 people in Ireland.
Insurance
Insurance, traditionally the smallest sector by employment, also reached a record employment level of 4,539 at the end of 2011 - and continuing its unbroken record of employment growth since the 2003 survey. The year end 2011 figure is up from 4,185 at end 2010. Amongst the new entrants are Santander who have opened two insurance companies in the past year, Santander Insurance Europe Limited, which sells Payment Protection Insurance across Europe, and its cross border life insurer, Santander Insurance Life Limited. However, the lion’s share of employment growth in the sector has come from existing companies including Axis, Irish Progressive and Allianz. Allianz’s subsidiary Allianz Worldwide Care added 238 jobs in 2011 and is continuing its expansion in 2012.
On the cross-border life side, despite estimations from Milliman that international life premiums have fallen by about 8 per cent in 2011, employment levels among the cross border life insurers remained stable.
Statistical Note: The response rate to the survey amongst IFSC companies (those with over 50 p.c. of their business from IFS), was over 95 p.c. It is estimated that the reported level of the employment count is within +/-200 of the actual total. |
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