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SYDNEY - Financial companies will find recruiting and retaining employees more difficult than before the current downturn, once the economy recovers, according to a survey of industry professionals in Australia and New Zealand.
In the meantime, jobs are likely to be cut in the financial services industry and less people will be hired because of the global financial crisis.
A Roy Morgan poll of finance professionals found that 76 per cent of respondents think the countries' talent shortage of recent years hadn't disappeared, and 67 per cent said it would come back worse than before.
Australian companies have struggled to attract and retain the people they need as the unemployment rate fell to a three-decade low earlier this year, and as they competed for talent with overseas-based companies.
Finsia chief executive Martin Fahy said Australia has an opportunity to become a regional financial hub and companies should seek to find ways other than cutting jobs to ride out the current slowdown.
"The challenge is to avoid impulsive decisions which could undermine our previous efforts to attract and retain talent," Dr Fahy said in a statement.
"Just six months ago Australia was dealing with a rising talent shortage.
"This period merely provides us with breathing space."
Still, 93 per cent of respondents said finance recruitment had significantly declined since September, and 80 per cent agreed that about 10,000 jobs, or 6.5 per cent of the banks' workforce will be cut over the next 12 months.
Short term competition for jobs may increase, as 70 per cent of respondents said the financial crisis had led to a significant number of expatriates coming back to Australia.
The poll surveyed 917 Finsia members between November 24 and December 1. Finsia has about 20,000 members in Australia and New Zealand.
- AAP
